LexNILAY GUPTA versus CHAIRMAN NEET PG MEDICAL AND DENTAL ADMISSION/ COUNSELLING BOARD 2020 AND PRINCIPAL GOVT. DENTAL COLLEGE & ORS.
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A B C D E F G H 161 NILAY GUPTA v. CHAIRMAN NEET PG MEDICAL AND DENTAL ADMISSION/ COUNSELLING BOARD 2020 AND PRINCIPAL GOVT. DENTAL COLLEGE & ORS. (Civil Appeal No. 3345 of 2020 Etc.) OCTOBER 09, 2020 [L. NAGESWARA RAO AND S. RAVINDRA BHAT, JJ.] Education/Educational Institutions: Admission – To Post Graduate Medical and Dental Courses – In Colleges in the State of Rajasthan – For academic year 2020-2021 – Change in seat matrix, eliminating NRI Quota and merging the same with management quota – Challenged by two NRI Candidates – Single Judge of High Court held elimination of NRI Quota as unsustainable and directed admission of the candidates – Admission of the candidates in NRI quota pursuant to the order – Division Bench of High Court set aside the order of Single Judge – Appeal to Supreme Court – Held: NRI quota is not an unqualified and unalterable part of the admission process in post-graduate medical courses – Management has the discretion to indicate whether, and to what extent, NRI reservation could be provided – However, while exercising such discretion, reasonable notice should be given to those aspiring for such seats – Single Judge could not have directed admission of the candidates – In the facts of the case, the final seat matrices acted to the disadvantage of NRI candiates – Therefore, in order to do complete justice to all the parties, it is directed that a special counselling session be carried out, confined only to number of seats filled as a result of Single Judge’s judgment – Such seats to be offered to the NRI candidates on merit basis – The seats vacated by such merited students shall then to be offered to the beneficiaries of the order of Single Judge – The special counselling should not disturb those admissions where the NRI candidates had accepted deletion of NRI quota and were accommodated in management quota – Medical Council of India Act, 1956. [2020] 12 S.C.R. 161 161 A B C D E F G H 162 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2020] 12 S.C.R. Disposing of the matters, the Court HELD : 1.1 A combined effect of the provisions of the Medical Council of India Act, 1956 and regulations with respect to admissions (which have been progressively amended in respect of eligibility for admission to courses, procedure for admission, etc.) and the decisions of this court, is that private colleges and institutions which offer such professional and technical courses, have some elbow room: they can decide whether, and to what extent, they wish to offer NRI or management quotas (the limits of which are again defined by either judicial precedents, enacted law or subordinate legislation). In these circumstances, the respondent management possessed the discretion to indicate whether, and to what extent, NRI reservations could be provided. There is nothing in *PA Inamdar case, to say that a 15% NRI quota is an unqualified and unalterable part of the admission process in post-graduate medical courses. It was, and remains within the discretionary authority of the management of private medical colleges, within their internal policy making domain. [Para 28][184-B-E] 1.2 Nevertheless, the discretion of private managements who set up and manage medical colleges cannot be left to such an untrammelled degree as to result in unfairness to candidates. Undoubtedly, these private institutions have the discretion to factor in an NRI or any other permissible quota. Yet that discretion should be tempered; if the discretion to have such a quota is exercised, it should be revised or modified reasonably, and within reasonable time. [Para 30][185-C-D] 1.3 In the present case the admission calendar appears to have been thrown out of gear on account of the Covid-19 pandemic. The rapidity with which the pandemic progressed perhaps generated a broad consensus among private colleges that going ahead with the NRI quota would be inadvisable. This Court cannot comment on the wisdom of such thinking as it falls within the exclusive domain of private decision-making. When the final seat matrices were published on 13.04.2020, it acted to the unfair detriment of these NRI students. The NRI students had not only started applying for counselling, but had also submitted all their documents for verification to determine their A B C D E F G H 163 eligibility for the NRI quota seats, and in a sense, committed themselves as candidates for NRI quota seats in Rajasthan. [Para 30][185-E-F; 186-A-C] 1.4 Thus, the NRI quota is neither sacrosanct, not inviolable in term
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