Telangana HC eases local rule for MBBS, BDS

HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court on Tuesday made it clear that Rule 3(III)(B) of the Telangana Medical & Dental Colleges Admissions 2017 cannot be applied to permanent residents, who are aspiring for MBBS or BDS seats from the local quota in Telangana colleges.

By ‘reading down’ the validity of the rule, the Telangana High Court said that it shall not apply to permanent residents of Telangana state.

Under Rule 3(III)(B), a candidate is considered a local if he/she has studied in a local educational institution or resided in the state for four consecutive academic years before appearing for the qualifying examination.

So far, the Kaloji Narayana Rao University for Health Sciences (KNRUHS) and the medical and health departments have been denying admission on the grounds that aspirants had done their Intermediate or studied Classes 9 and 10 in other states, despite doing the rest of their studies in the state.

Challenging the rule, many students, including wards of All India Service officials and Central government employees filed petitions in the High Court.

The state maintained that being on transfer, children of the said employees studied in other states and after qualifying in NEET, the university declared them non-local candidates.

Eighty-five per cent of the seats are reserved for locals in medical and dental colleges, whereas 15 per cent is for non-locals.

After a series of hearing contentions of the petitioner students and KNRUHS, the division bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Tadakamalla Vinod Kumar opined that Rule 3(III)(B) of 2017 Rules was violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India.

The bench said that in case the rule is struck down, students from all over the country shall be entitled to admission to medical colleges in the state. Therefore, the High Court, instead of striking it down felt that the rule needed to be read down. It held that the rule shall not apply to permanent residents of Telangana.

Issuing its verdict, the High Court directed petitioners to produce their residence certificates, issued by a competent authority of the Telangana government, to the university within a week. “Then the petitioners shall be treated as local candidates for admission to MBBS/BDS courses for the academic year 2023-2024,” the court said.