Vijayawada: While considering the grievance of an MBBS candidate seeking admission under the BC-E category, the Andhra Pradesh High Court recently directed Dr. NTR University of Health Sciences not to fill one MBBS seat in the open merit category at Kurnool Medical College (KMC) during the third phase of counselling for admission to first-year MBBS course.
The HC bench comprising Chief Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur and Justice Ravi Cheemalapati issued this direction after taking note of the petitioner's submission that even though eight seats were reserved for the BC-E category at KMC, only seven were filled and the institute diverted the remaining seat to the general open merit category.
After appearing in the National Eligibility-Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET-UG) examination conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), the petitioner student secured 626 marks and applied for admission under the BC-E category, as NTRUHS reserved altogether eight seats for this category in its seat matrix.
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However, the petitioner's counsel argued that instead of the allocated eight seats, the institute filled only seven BC-E category seats and diverted the remaining seat to the general open merit category.
As per the latest media report by Deccan Chronicle, even though the petitioner was allotted a seat in the Anantapur Government Medical College in the open category, he expressed interest in taking admission at KMC since he hails from Kurnool.
While considering the plea on Saturday, the HC bench observed that the action of NTRUHS to change the seat matrix without cause or justification would prejudice the petitioner's interests. Further, the court opined that the seat matrix could not be altered after the commencement of the selection process.
Therefore, the Court suggested that as the petitioner had already been selected in the open category for Anantapur Government Medical College, he could be considered to get admitted in the one available seat in the general open category at KMC in the upcoming third phase of counselling.
On the other hand, the counsel for NTRUHS, T.V. Sri Devi, requested for additional time to file a response. Therefore, the Court scheduled the matter for further hearing on October 22, 2024.
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