In a temporary relief to students with Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) cards, the High Court of Karnataka has permitted eight OCI students to appear for the Joint Entrance Examinations (JEE) for seeking admissions to Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), National Institutes of Technology (NITs), Centrally Funded Technical Institutes (CFTIs) and Indian Institutes of Information Technologies (IIITs).
Also, the court has permitted them to appear for Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana fellowship – 2015, for which August 30 is last date to apply online, being conducted by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc.), Bengaluru.
Justice Ravi Malimath passed the interim order on the petitions filed by Sneha Sreedhara and seven others, who are pursuing their studies in class 11 or class 12. While allowing them to seek admission in the IITs under general category as well, the court made it clear that their selection or admission to these courses would be subject to further orders.
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Most of the petitioner-students, who were born in either the U.S. or the U.K., have been studying in Bengaluru from kindergarten after their parents, who had migrated to these foreign countries for their higher studies and later worked there for some years, returned to their home State, along with their children, from past three to 12 years.
They termed that the bar imposed on the OCI card-holders was contrary to the notification issued in 2005 under Section 7(B((1) of the Citizenship Act, 1955.
The notification, issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, had made it clear that the “Overseas Citizens of India shall be entitled to parity with Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) in respect of all facilities available to them in economic, financial and educational fields”, which, the petitioners said, was the driving force for their parents to return to India.
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Legality questioned
The petitioners have questioned the legality of the condition imposed by the Central Board for Secondary Exams (CBSC), which conducted JEE (Main), 2015, holding that the OCI students were not eligible for admission to IIITs, CFTs and NITs through the JEE (Main) channel, when there was no such restriction on NRI students.
Pointing out that till 2014, the OCI students were allowed admission through JEE (Main) channel, the petitioner-students said that this year, the OCI students were treated as “foreign nationals” and a “supernumerary category” was created for admitting foreign nationals for IITs, unlike in the past, when the OCI students were admitted under general category.
Interestingly, the petitioners pointed out, they could not find even a single seat under “supernumerary category” in any IITs in the seat matrix issued for the year 2015.