Following the denial of admission to an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) candidate for a seat in a government medical college, the Gujarat High Court yesterday issued a notice to the state government and the Admission Committee for Professional Undergraduate Medical Educational Courses (ACPC).
The matter is scheduled to be heard in court today. The petitioner, who has been living in Gujarat since 2014, had earlier requested the ACPC this month to consider her case.
In the petition filed on her behalf, the candidate asked to be granted admission to MBBS and other courses under the government seats, if otherwise eligible.
The petition further stated that “Gujarat Professional Medical Educational Courses (Regulation of Admission and Fixation of Fees) Rules, 2017 were amended in May 2018. The amendments opened up admissions to OCIs for MBBS courses without any restriction.”
The confusion over admissions for OCIs to various undergraduate colleges was further increased when the Medical Council of India told the Supreme Court that it had no specific provision under its own regulations to define whether or not OCIs and Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) should be treated at par with NRIs, and left the definition of status to various state Governments as per their own laws.
Considering a similar matter in Karnataka, the Supreme Court of India had last year overturned a Karnataka High Court 2017 ruling allowing OCI applicants admission to medical colleges under the state quota, restricting them to NRI seats. The ruling also established that OCIs were to be treated the same as NRIs in terms of admissions in the state.
