In a partial relief to three Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) category students, the High Court of Karnataka has directed the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) to allow them to participate in the counselling for admissions to undergraduate medical course in quotas other than government seats. A Division Bench comprising Justice Jayant M. Patel and Justice N.K. Sudhindrarao passed the interim order after the KEA submitted that it has created provisions for all the OCI students to register for online counselling based on their NEET ranking by changing the earlier entry system, which had restricted the registration for counselling only for students with Indian citizenship.
Counsel for three petitioner-students — Reshma Rajendran, Vaishnavi Kavirayani and Krishna Vamshi S.R. — submitted that the petitioners were not claiming admission for any government seats but wanted to be considered for counselling for seats under management or NRI quota.
While directing the KEA to strictly comply with its statement that three petitioner-students should be allowed to participate in the counselling, the Bench said that resultantly, the petitioners shall also be entitled for counselling, subject to limitation that such counselling would be considered only for seats other than the government seats.