BENGALURU: The division bench of Karnataka High Court on Thursday stayed the judgement of single bench that Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) students are eligible for seats under government quota to pursue professional courses.
While passing the interim order to that effect after hearing the appeal filed by the state government against the single bench judgement dated April 10, the division bench of Acting Chief Justice L Narayana Swamy and Justice P S Dinesh Kumar clarified that the interim order will not come in the way of OCI students, who were petitioners before the single bench, appearing for CET - 2019 to be conducted by the Karnataka Examinations Authority. But the division bench said that their result will be subject to the outcome of the writ appeal filed by the state government against the judgement of single bench.
In the appeal, the state government contended that Karnataka students will be deprived of their rights if OCI students are permitted to appear for CET as per the judgement of the single bench order. The OCI students cannot be treated on par with the Indian citizens for admission to professional courses, it stated. On April 10, the single bench had given relief to OCI students by directing the Karnataka government and the KEA to permit the OCI students to register for CET-2019 as per the notification dated January 31, 2019, for selection and allotment of seats in BE/BTech/BArch or such other professional courses in government colleges, private aided/un-aided colleges/ institutions for the academic year 2019-2020 on the basis of their relative merit and ranking in the imminent CET-2019.