HC directs Kaloji to file counter on counselling

Petitioners urge TS High Court to hold counselling afresh as per GO No. 114

THE UNIVERSITY, for the first time, has to openly explain the procedure it followed for counselling

The Telangana High Court has directed the Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences to file a counter affidavit in a case filed by a few students questioning the counselling procedure that allowed less meritorious students, majority of whom are from Andhra

Pradesh, in the otherwise meritorious “unreserved open category”.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice M.S. Ramachandra Rao on Friday directed the petitioners’ counsel to implead 43 students from Andhra Pradesh, who according to petitioners, are ineligible to get admission in Telangana state medical colleges. The petitioners urged the court to scrap the counselling and hold it afresh in strict compliance with the G.O. Ms No. 114.

The Bench posted the case for next hearing on

February 19. With the High Court directive, the university for the first time has to openly explain the procedure it followed for counselling and the same would be put to legal scrutiny. According to the petitioners — G. Apoorva and A. Harshita — the KNRUHS implemented the GO and filled the meritorious ‘unreserved open category’ first and later the 85 per cent local quota. But, it deviated from the procedure in the Phase 2 and in the subsequent phases of counselling because of which less meritorious students from Andhra Pradesh got admission.

Petitioners’ counsel Vedula Srinivas explained to the Bench that in any phase, irrespective of the students applying for Phase 2 or not, the merit order should always be such that top meritorious students should occupy the unreserved open category. Had the university implemented the GO in subsequent phases of counselling, the less meritorious students from AP will not have secured admission.

Once the TS students who were allotted seats in the local quota in the first phase of counselling are upgraded into unreserved open category based on their merit, the seats vacated by them in local quota would have to be filled exclusively with Telangana state students. Several Telangana state students either lost the opportunity to study medicine or study in better colleges.