The Kerala High Court has directed the State government to consider extending the time for applying for MBBS courses in NRI quota to enable those candidates who could not apply for the seats.
The court also ordered that the government should consider extending the time before the third allotment, in view of the availability of unfilled seats.
The court issued the order while disposing of a petition filed by Jerin Thomas Panicker of Kollam. According to him, he was unable to produce the documents within the specified because of the prevailing pandemic situation.
He pointed out that more than 50% of NRI quota seats was remaining vacant because most of the MBBS aspirants could not submit all the documents as directed by the competent authority.
The court observed that several cases had come before it in which which the candidates were unable to submit the documents within the specified time. Presently, the first allotment was complete and the process for the second allotment was on.
As per the judgment of the Apex Court, part of the amount received from the candidates under the NRI quota should be utilised for the purpose of subsidizing the fee for weaker sections of the community. Under such circumstances, it was incumbent that the entire NRI quota seats were filled.
Therefore, the government should consider extending the time. Besides, if the time was extended, the petitioner and similarly placed persons would also get an opportunity to rectify the defects pointed out by the competent authority, the court said.
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