SC to hear on Sep 30 Telangana’s plea against HC verdict on medical admissions

The Supreme Court on Friday said it will hear on September 30 the Telangana government's plea against a high court verdict holding that state's permanent residents cannot be denied benefits of admissions in the medical colleges merely because they lived outside. The state government, by the Telangana Medical and Dental Colleges Admission (Admission into MBBS & BDS Courses) Rules, 2017, as amended in 2024, mandated that only those students, who have studied for last four years up to class 12 in the state, will be entitled to admissions in the medical and dental colleges under the state quota. A bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud on September 20 stayed the high court order that permanent residents or those domiciled in the state cannot be denied the benefit of admission in the medical colleges merely because of their study or residence outside Telangana.

On that day, the state government, however, had agreed to grant a one-time exception to 135 students, who had moved the high court, in admissions in the medical and dental colleges. On Friday, the top court said that it would hear the plea on September 30, as today, Justice JB Pardiwala was unavailable. Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan and Sravan Kumar Karanam appeared for the state government.

Sankaranarayanan said the law provides that previous four years have to be in Telangana and "for better or worse, that is the rule". He said even states like Assam and Haryana have similar laws and they have been upheld by the top court.

Senior advocate Shadan Farasat, appearing for some students, said there were 16 people, who are all permanent residents of Telangana, but went to Andhra Pradesh for coaching and now stood ousted from the admission process. "We heard this case in combination of three (judges). So let us hear this on Monday when Justice JB Pardiwala is with us," the bench said.

The top court had issued notices to the students and others on the state government's plea challenging the September 5 order of the high court.

''Till next listing, without prejudice to the aforesaid statement made by the Telangana government, the impugned order of the High Court dated September 5, 2024, shall remain stayed,'' the bench had said.

In its appeal, the state government contended that high court erroneously held that Rule 3(a) of the Telangana Medical and Dental Colleges Admission (Admission into MBBS & BDS Courses) Rules, 2017, as amended in 2024, to be interpreted to mean that the respondents shall be eligible to admission in the medical colleges in Telangana.

The rule mandated that students seeking admission in Telangana medical colleges must have studied for four consecutive years in the state before the qualifying exam.

''Such an order by the High Court overlooks the fact the State of Telangana possesses the legislative competence to determine various requirements, including domicile, permanent resident status etc., to determine admission of students in the universities in the state of Telangana,'' the appeal stated.

The state government said the high court's judgement will mandate the state to prepare the new rules for admission which is a time-consuming process.

''After framing the rules students have to apply and collect the requisite certificates from concerned authorities. The each certificate submitted by the student needs to be verified by the Health University. Whereas the present rule prescribes that the students can produce their educational certificate without approaching any office or authority. If the judgement of the High Court is implemented, it will result in a huge delay in the allotment of seats to MBBS and BDS students,'' the plea said.

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