.
Calcutta, October 30, 2004
The Telegraph
Some students admitted to the MBBS course in Bengal under the NRI
quota will find their way into the classroom, after all, along with
another batch from the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) merit list.
On Friday, a Supreme Court division bench of Justice Y.K. Sabharwal
and Justice Tarun Chatterjee held that 15 per cent of the seats at
two medical colleges would be reserved for NRI/NRI-sponsored students.
The rest, earlier filled by the same section, would now be left open
to students short-listed in the JEE.
The order has been sent to the state health department with a copy
forwarded to the chairman of the Central Selection Committee that looks
after the admission of students who have cleared JEE in both the engineering
and medical streams.
“We are yet to receive the order. By Monday, it should reach us
and we will then decide on our next step,” said Prabhakar Chatterjee,
director of health services.
The order comes in the wake of the state’s appeal to the apex
court against a previous high court directive that the seats in question
be filled by applicants figuring in the JEE merit list.
A batch of students, including Chayan Kumar Roy and Soumyadeep Datta
Roy, argued against the state government filling up more than 50 per
cent of the newly created seats in the state-run SSKM Hospital in Calcutta
and Midnapur Medical College.
Senior counsel and former additional solicitor-general Mukul Rohtagi,
appearing for the aggrieved students, alleged that the state government
had “surreptitiously” filled up 104 of the 200 seats in these
two colleges, violating the high court order.
Rohtagi argued that NRI students who gained admission over and above
the 15 per cent ceiling, would now have to make way for “meritorious”
students like the present petitioners (respondents in the Supreme Court).
The Bengal government had thrown open 200 seats for admission under
the MBBS course at SSKM and Midnapur Medical College earlier this year.
Of these, 150 seats were reserved for NRI students selected through
a separate admission test. They were asked to pay Rs 9.24 lakh for admission.
But with the Medical Council of India dragging its feet on recognising
both these colleges for conducting undergraduate courses in medicine,
45 students opted out.
Friday’s interim order would kick-start a selection process from
300-odd students who had their hopes dashed after the JEE merit list
was out