Indore (Madhya Pradesh): In a major development, Madhya Pradesh High Court has recorded the state government's assurance that 48 vacant NRI quota seats in private medical colleges will be converted into general category seats and allotted to meritorious candidates in the final round of NEET-PG 2024 counselling.
A division bench, comprising Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva and Justice Devnarayan Mishra, was informed by the government while it was hearing a plea filed by Dr Khyati Shekhar, a NEET-PG 2024 candidate.
The petitioner claimed that the 48 NRI quota seats remained unoccupied in the first two rounds of counselling, with the state’s directorate of medical education (DME) allegedly waiting for new NRI candidates, despite allegations that fictitious NRI applicants had blocked these seats. Shekhar contended that as per Supreme Court and Madhya Pradesh High Court rulings, the unoccupied NRI seats should be offered to general category candidates based on merit.
Despite securing an impressive State Rank of 936 with an 87.27 NEET percentile, she was not allotted a seat due to the alleged misuse of the NRI quota. During the hearing, the state government’s counsel cited Rule 14(A)(2) of the Madhya Pradesh Medical Education Admission Rules-2018, which mandates that any unoccupied NRI seats must be included in the final mop-up round and allocated to general category candidates based on merit. The court recorded this assurance prompting the petitioner to withdraw the plea.
