Parents of medical aspirants in Maharashtra to challenge new domicile rules in Supreme Court

Mumbai city news: Close to 40 parents had gathered at the Directorate of Medical Education & Research (DMER) on Saturday evening to discuss issues about medical admissions with the officials.

Medical and dental aspirants in the state are up for another fight for seats in coveted colleges, with a petition planned to challenge the new rules on domicile eligibility.

Unhappy with the state’s decision to relax domicile eligibility for medical and dental admissions in state, parents of a group of students are filing a writ petition in the Supreme Court this week.

Close to 40 parents had gathered at the Directorate of Medical Education & Research (DMER) on Saturday evening to discuss issues about medical admissions with the officials. “Based on a recently passed high court order, the DMER has relaxed domicile norms because of which the ranks are very high this year. Students from other states have made it into the state quota merit list while our children are struggling,” said Mahendra Chaudhuri, one of the parents.

On July 7, the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court relaxed domicile norms for medical and dental aspirants in the state. Originally, those who had cleared Class 10 and 12 from state or had a domicile certificate were eligible for state quota seats. Now, the compulsion on Class 10 from state has been dropped. “Those who have cleared Class 12 from Maharashtra, even without Class 10 from the state, will be eligible for state quota seats from now,” said Dr Pravin Shingare, director of DMER.

Parents said the purpose of state quota seats was being defeated as most students from the state were losing out on seats in state-run and private institutes due to this change in eligibility criteria. “We have no option but to take our fight to the SC once again this year. Our children deserve seats in state institutes,” said Ranjan Mehta, another parent.

Parents were also unhappy with DMER’s decision to not release a revised provisional state merit list, after verification of documents of all aspirants. “Thousands of students apply for seat in Maharashtra medical and dental institutes and document verification will decide whether all those who have applied are eligible for state quota seats. DMER cannot do away with this procedure,” said Mehta. She added that parents have requested DMER to release a final list before the first seat allotment list is out on July 25.