BENGALURU: The ongoing counseling for undergraduate medical seats for the 2017-18 academic year has been postponed till Saturday. Following directions from the High Court that the state government allow candidates of People of Indian Origin (PIO) and Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) even under other private quota seats, the medical education department has put on hold the seat allotment process which was scheduled to be announced at 4 pm on Wednesday.
The decision was taken at a meeting convened by Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash Patil on Wednesday with officials of the department and Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA). “As the court directed us to include PIO and OCI candidates even in other private quota seats, we have taken the decision to work this out and till then, the ongoing counseling will be put on hold.”
PIO and OCI candidates are allowed to take seats under the 15 per cent quota reserved for NRI candidates. Challenging this, the PIO and OCI students approached the High Court, which on Wednesday, directed the government to allow them in another private category.
However, these candidates will be allowed only under private quota seats. “These candidates will not be allowed to take seats in government colleges and government quota seats at private colleges. They can claim seats under private quota,” Patil said.
The decision to put on hold allotment for medical seats will affect engineering seat aspirants who are waiting to get seats which are going to be released after medical allotment. As medical counselling has been postponed, the last date to complete counselling for engineering is July 30 and KEA will have only one day to fill the seats. These seats will be sent back to colleges and converted to management seats.
What now
Option entry up to 7pm on Friday.
Eligible candidates can enter their option afresh. Document verification for PIO and OCI candidates from 9am to 2pm.
1st round allotment publication at 10am on Saturday. PIO and OCI candidates are eligible for document verification.