The Telangana High Court on Thursday ruled that students, ‘whose domicile was State of Telangana or were permanent residents of Telangana’, should be eligible for admission to the medical colleges of the State.
A Bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice J. Sreenivas Rao, however, granted liberty to the State government to frame guidelines/rules to determine as to when a student can be considered a permanent resident of Telangana. The Bench pronounced the verdict in a batch of writ petitions filed by students seeking admissions into MBBS/BDS courses in Telangana. They did not study, for various reasons and under different circumstances, in the State for four consecutive years, preceding the qualifying examination.
The students knocked the doors of the HC because by not studying for four consecutive years in the State before the qualifying exam made them ineligible to join medical colleges in the State since the Telangana government introduced Rule 3 (a) in the matter. This rule of the Telangana Medical and Dental Colleges Admission (Admission into MBBS and BDS Courses) Rules, 2017 was introduced by the government on July 19 through the G.O. Ms. no. 33.
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. While citing different verdicts of the Supreme Court on related matters, the Bench noted that one of the objects of Rule 3 (a) was to protect the interests of the interests of students residing within the State or whose domicile was Telangana.
Another objective of the rule was to ensure medical facilities were made available to the people of the State as ‘permanent students’ would remain in the State after completing medical education here.
However, the purpose of the rule would be defeated if a permanent resident of the State was denied admission merely on the ground that they had not passed the qualifying exam from the State, the Bench said. “The permanent resident/domicile of State of Telangana may have cleared the relevant qualifying examination for an institution outside the State and may otherwise be eligible cannot be denied the benefit of admission merely on the basis of study or residence outside the State,” the judgment said.
Since there were no guidelines/rules framed on determination of domicile/permanent resident status of students, the HC directed the government to frame the same. The university should consider these rules in each case of the petitioners and take a call on the admissions, it said.
Published - September 06, 2024 12:13 am IST
