Telangana HC junks plea for quota from AP medical aspirants

 Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Monday upheld Government Order 72 restricting NEET students from Andhra Pradesh availing the local candidate quota in MBBS or BDS admissions in the colleges set up after the formation of separate Telangana state.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice N.V. Shravan Kumar on Monday was pronouncing its verdict in the batch of petitions seeking to declare GO 72 as illegal and arbitrary.

Following ths, students from Andhra Pradesh cannot claim to be local candidates for admission to around 34 medical and dental colleges which were set up after the Telangana state was formed, under the 85 per cent competent quota. They can still apply for the admission in the All-India pool quota of 15 per cent.

The petitioners had contended that under Section 95 of the AP Reorganisation Act, they had scope to secure admissions in Telangana medical colleges for 10 years as local candidates. They said that except for the Presidential Order, the state government had no power to restrict admissions into MBBS and BDS courses on the basis of place of birth/residence. The amendment to the 2017 Rules was in contravention of Article 13(2) of the Constitution, they said.

During the arguments, Advocate-General B.S. Prasad informed the High Court that Section 95 of AP Reorganisation Act applies to colleges which were established in the undivided state and not for colleges that were established after the new state was formed.