PMET-2016: HC notice to Punjab, Baba Farid varsity on NRI seats

PETITIONER SAYS ADMISSION TO NRI SEATS CANNOT BE SUBJECTED TO ANY ENTRANCE TEST

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court has issued a notice to the Punjab government and Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS), Faridkot, on a petition, challenging the entrance examination (PMET-2016) to fill non-resident Indian (NRI) seats in MBBS and BDS courses in government and private colleges of the state.

The petitioner, Navjot Kaur, a Tarn Taran resident, has sought quashing of the notification by the state government stating that the admission to fill NRI seats in government and private colleges would be done on the basis of merit in the entrance test.

The high court bench has sought response of various parties by September 13.

The petitioner’s counsel, Ashok Sharma Nabhewala, argued that NRI seats could not be clubbed with other categories of seats and they could not be subjected to any entrance test. NRIs should be admitted on the basis of merit in the qualifying examination, he added.

This practice has been adopted since the inception of the NRI seats and various judgments have also upheld the procedure of admitting NRI candidates on the basis of qualifying examination.

The court was told that in the examination held for NRI seats as many as 37 students appeared and only seven qualified whereas there were 41 seats in the MBBS and seven in the BDS course for NRIs in various government colleges.

“The government will lose the revenue in lakhs which it would have earned by filling the remaining 34 seats,” the court was told.