HC partly quashes ordinance abolishing NRI quota in Guj

medical colleges Ahmedabad, Aug 16 (PTI) The Gujarat High Court todaypartly quashed a government ordinance abolishing all NRI quotain colleges offering medical courses in the state. A division bench of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy andJustice V M Pancholi held unconstitutional the government’sdecision to cancel quota for "genuine" NRIs seeking admissionin colleges in the state, while upholding its decision toabolish quota for "dependent" NRIs. The court observed that there was "no reason to removethe NRI quota entirely" as this amounted to violation ofSupreme Court order in the PA Inamdar case and wasunconstitutional. It said that as per the Supreme Court order in the PAInamdar case, limited reservation not exceeding 15 per centmay be given to the NRIs, but only "genuine" and not"dependents or sponsors" of NRIs be given this reservation. Partly allowing the petitions, the court said the wardsof dependents of NRIs are also given admission underreservation, while the SC has only talked about reservation inthe context of "genuine" NRIs. "There is no reason to remove NRI quota, and hence theordinance is set aside to the extent of removing genuine NRIsfrom the quota system. This, however, won’t apply to NRIdependents. Thus the writ application is partly allowed," thecourt said. The state government had earlier this year issued anordinance, called the Gujarat Professional Medical EducationalColleges or Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Fixationof Fees) (Amendment) Ordinance, 2016, whereby the entire quotafor NRIs in medical colleges was abolished. The high court also refused to stay its order for twoweeks when the lawyer of one of the five petitioners, aconsortium of self-finance dental colleges, requested the sameso that his client could move the Supreme Court. Five petitioners, including a consortium ofself-financed dental colleges and four NRI admission seekers,had challenged the constitutional validity of the GujaratProfessional Medical Educational Colleges or Institutions(Regulation of Admission and Fixation of Fees) (Amendment)Ordinance, 2016. (MORE) PTI KA PD GKDV