Summary
An NRI quota in private postgraduate medical admissions is discretionary, not a compulsory or immutable 15% entitlement. Nevertheless, its last-minute withdrawal after candidates had committed themselves was unfair in the particular pandemic-disrupted process. The Court rejected automatic admission directions and ordered a narrowly confined merit-based counselling round to minimise displacement, expressly limiting the remedy and timing observations to the case.
Issues
- Whether private colleges were obliged to maintain a 15% NRI quota.
- Whether the timing of withdrawal unfairly prejudiced candidates who had relied on the notified process.
- What relief could accommodate competing admitted candidates without wholesale disruption.
Held
- P.A. Inamdar permits, rather than compels, an NRI quota up to 15%, subject to bona fide use and merit within it. The management has discretion whether and to what extent to provide the quota within governing law; NRI candidates have no unconditional admission entitlement. (¶¶ 24, 25, 28, 29)
- That discretion must be exercised reasonably. Although withdrawal itself lay within management’s domain, its timing after applications and document submissions had unfairly disadvantaged NRI candidates in this unusual pandemic-disrupted process. Reasonable notice should enable aspirants to consider alternatives. (¶¶ 30, 31, 33)
- The Single Judge could not direct admission of particular candidates as of right. At most their cases could have been directed to be considered. The resulting admissions and displacements required an equitable solution accommodating competing claims. (¶¶ 29, 32)
- Special counselling, with college participation, was confined to the seats filled under the Single Judge’s directions and must allocate them to NRI applicants solely by merit. Seats those meritorious candidates vacate in other disciplines must be offered to the beneficiaries of the Single Judge’s orders; a student declining such an offer must receive a fee refund. (¶ 34)
- Admissions of students who accepted quota deletion and entered the management quota must remain undisturbed, except those who approached the court at the earliest opportunity in April 2020 before the Single Judge’s judgment. Counselling must finish within one week. No general deadline for quota withdrawal was prescribed, and the relief was expressly case-specific. (¶¶ 34, 35)
Result
Appeals and pending applications disposed of with limited special-counselling and conditional fee-refund directions; automatic admission relief replaced by the specified merit-based adjustment, to be completed within one week.