'Local' Candidates in Medical Admissions: HC Reserves Orders

Hyderabad:The Telangana High Court on Thursday reserved orders in the batch of petitions challenging the validity of the recent amendments and substitutions to Rule 3(a) of the Telangana Medical and Dental Colleges Admissions Rules, 2017, which define new qualifications for local candidates to get admissions into MBBS and BDS courses.

Through GO Ms No. 33 of the health department dated July 19, the state government had redefined the local candidate eligibility for medical admissions and said that a student must have studied in local educational institutions from the Class 8 to Intermediate to be eligible to apply for MBBS seats.

The said amendment was challenged by 135 students. Counsels for the petitioners, Advocate General A. Sudharshan Reddy and A. Prabhakar Rao on behalf of Kaloji Narayana Rao University for Health Sciences submitted arguments. The court heard the marathon arguments for three days.

Counsels for the petitioners argued that the High Court had last year issued directives regarding local candidates for medical admissions. The government has amended the rules by omitting the seven-year local resident rule and inserting compulsory education from standard eight to Intermediate.

If a student goes out of state for better standards of education or any other reason, he will lose the local candidate status by the said amendments. As the arguments from all sides concluded, the court reserved the orders.