BENGALURU: The High Court on Thursday made it clear that it will not interfere with the Supreme Court’s order making it mandatory for NRIs and foreign nationals to clear NEET to obtain medical seats for the 2016-17 academic year.
However, the court said the protection granted to genuine candidates already admitted under NRI/foreign national quota up to September 1, 2016 in petitioner institutions shall not be disturbed for two weeks to enable them to approach a superior court.
A division bench of Justice Jayant Patel and Justice S N Satyanarayana pronounced the order while disposing of a batch of petitions filed by Manipal University and others.
The colleges had sought quashing of a communication dated August 3, issued by the Medical Council of India (MCI) directing medical colleges to fill 15 per cent NRI quota seats only from the merit list prepared on the basis of marks obtained in the NEET examination.
Karnataka Professional Colleges Foundation, MSR Medical College and Hospital, Manipal Academy of Higher Education Trust, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal and Mangaluru had also challenged MCI’s communication.
The petitioners contended that the NRI students are a separate and distinct class and cannot be clubbed with Indian students. “They come from different countries and their curriculum, course and content and syllabus are completely different. It will also be impractical for them to come to India only to appear for NEET and come again for taking admission. It is well settled principle of law that to treat unequals as equals also violates Article 14 of the Constitution,” the petitioners said.
Main accused in M’luru activist murder gets bail
Bengaluru: THE High Court on Thursday granted conditional bail to Naresh Shenoy, a businessman from Mangaluru, who is the main accused in the murder of RTI activist Vinayaka Panduranga Baliga. Baliga (51), who was fighting against building bylaw violations and irregularities in transactions of Venkataramana temple in Mangaluru, was brutally murdered at Kodialbail on March 21. While allowing the bail petition filed by Shenoy, Justice B Sreenivase Gowda imposed the condition that Shenoy should furnish a personal bond of `2 lakh with two local sureties to the satisfaction of the local court. Shenoy was also asked to surrender his passport as well as visa and not contact the authorities of Venkataramana temple or visit it, and not leave the jurisdiction of the local court without prior permission. Shenoy should also mark attendance before the police station concerned every Sunday and also co-operate in the investigation of the case, according to the conditions imposed by the judge.