The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition challenging the Punjab and Haryana High Court order of September 10, which refused to expand the definition of NRI quota for admission to undergraduate medical and dental colleges of Punjab.
Upholding the High Court verdict, the Bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justice JB Pardiwala said that it would dismiss all the petitions since the NRI quota business was nothing but a fraud.
On August 20, the AAP-led government in Punjab issued a notification, widening the definition of a Non-Resident Indian (NRI) candidate to include distant relatives such as uncles, aunts, grandparents, and cousins of NRIs under the 15 percent quota for this group in admissions to private and government medical institutes in Punjab.
On September 10, the High Court set aside the state government’s notification, observing that it would open the door for potential misuse.
The counsel representing the Punjab government today argued before the Apex Court that the States of Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh were also following a broad definition for NRI quota admissions.
The Bench then highlighted the ‘deleterious’ consequences of the notification, stating that the candidates scoring three times higher marks would lose admission (in NEET-UG courses).
The Apex Court said that distant relatives, such as ‘mama, tai, taya, chacha or chachi’ of an NRI candidate settled abroad, would get admissions ahead of meritorious candidates and this could not be allowed.
The Court would put an end to this money-spinning machine. The so-called precedents must give way to the primacy of law, it noted.