Hearing a petition alleging irregularities in the admissions process, the Madras High Court directed 10 private medical colleges in Tamil Nadu to submit details of admissions made under the non-resident Indian (NRI) quota.
The court also directed the Medical Council of India (MCI) to file an affidavit explaining the process for filling vacant seats. About 260 seats were earmarked under the NRI quota, of which only 53 were filled up.
The 207 seats under the NRI quota remained vacant and, without conducting manual counselling, the state returned them to the management, which had filled them up without following merits and for huge sums, the counsel alleged.
During the hearing, a bench comprising Justice N Kirubakaran and Justice P Velmurugan orally observed whether there was any possibility to bring a rule for giving preference to students who studied in government schools for admission into government medical colleges.
Appellant S Dheeran of Coimbatore had challenged the order of a single judge bench dismissing his petition for a direction to the state government to undertake manual counselling among NRI candidates to fill up the 207 vacant quota seats.
The bench directed the 10 private medical colleges to furnish a list of the candidates along with their marks and the procedures followed by the colleges to admit them under the NRI quota.
Counsel for Dheeran also submitted that the entire issue arose because the MCI had not laid down any separate schedule for filling up the NRI quota, prompting the court to direct the MCI file an affidavit explaining its stand.