Supreme Court: Punjab's NRI quota criteria a 'fraud' on medical education

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Tuesday castigated Punjab's AAP govt for expanding the eligibility criteria for availing 15% NRI quota in admissions to state-run and private medical and dental colleges to include 'wards' of NRIs and termed this a "fraud on the education system to mint money".
Taking exception to the last-minute expansion of criteria for NRI quota after the last day of submission of applications to include any near relative or ward of NRIs for admission to medical colleges, a bench of CJI D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra strongly criticised the Bhagwant Singh Mann-led govt for devising a "money spinning" mechanism.
"Look at the expressions - 'nearest relatives' and 'wards' of NRIs. Anyone can be a nearest relative, even a third cousin. And what did the govt mean by ward of an NRI? Any and everyone can be termed a ward of an NRI, and the proof is just an affidavit by the person residing abroad," the bench said.
Dismissing Punjab govt's appeal against high court's Sept 10 order quashing the new criteria, the apex court said, "These are all backdoor entries, and this is nothing but a money-spinning device for the govt. It must stop."
Appearing for general category students who are to avail the vacant NRI quota seats, senior advocate Abhimanyu Bhandari said a general category student with 630 out of 700 marks would not get a seat but an NRI ward with just 200 marks could get admitted. "In Punjab, it is not difficult to find an NRI," he said.
The CJI said the Punjab and Haryana HC bench led by CJ Sheel Nagu had given the correct judgment by quashing the Aug 20 corrigendum to the medical admission prospectus and directing the state to complete the admissions as per the unamended prospectus which entitled only children of NRIs to take admission under the NRI quota.
For Punjab, additional advocate general Shadan Farasat argued that the Aam Aadmi Party government had followed the same process that was being implemented for NRI quota admissions by Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chandigarh and Union govt.
The CJI said, "Let us put a lid on this whole fraud in the name of NRI quota seats. This expanded meaning of NRI quota is nothing but a fraud on the medical education system. After the last date of submission of application form, the Punjab government expands the NRI quota seat eligibility criteria. General category candidates having three times the marks of an NRI ward will lose out because of this. The court should not lend its authority to this patent fraud."