The Supreme Court on Friday stayed a Telangana High Court ruling that had directed the State government to allow the benefit of 85 percent local quota in medical courses to students who are permanent State residents but did their schooling from outside the State [State of Telangana and ors v Kalluri Naga Narasimha and Ors] .
A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud with Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra issued notice on the appeal filed by the State government against the High Court ruling.
The Court, however, also said that the respondent-students governed by the High Court order of September 5 can participate in the counselling process for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET).
"We direct that the respondent-students who are governed by the September 5 judgment of the High Court, can participate in the NEET counselling process. Issue notice. Till next date of listing ... order of the High Court shall remain stayed," the Court ordered.
Senior Advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Maninder Singh and Gopal Sankarnarayanan with advocate Sravan Kumar Karanam appeared for Telangana.
Senior Advocates DVS Somayajulu and PB Suresh instructed by advocate Vipin Nair appeared for the students on caveat.
The Bench was hearing a challenge to the judgment passed by Telangana High Court on September 5 in a batch of petitions challenging the Rule 3(a) of the Telangana Medical and Dental Colleges Admission (Admission into MBBS & BDS Courses) Rules, 2017.
In the rules amended on July 19, the government mandated that candidates must have studied or resided in Telangana for four consecutive years before the qualifying exam.
Candidates, who had completed their intermediate education in Andhra Pradesh and other neighbouring states and thus had been denied the benefit of the local quota, moved the High Court against the same.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice J Sreenivas Rao, ruled in favour of the students and read down the rule.
However, the Court declined to strike down the amendment in toto, observing that such a decision would entitle students from all over India to admission in medical colleges of Telangana.
"Therefore, we read down the Rule 3(a) and 3(iii) of the Telangana Medical and Dental Colleges Admission (Admission into MBBS & BDS Courses) Rules, 2017, as amended vide G.O.Ms.No.33, dated 19.07.2024. It is held that the aforesaid Rule shall not apply to permanent residents of the State of Telangana. Thus, by reading down the Rule in the manner indicated above shall also be in consonance of object of Article 371D(2)(b)(ii) of the Constitution of India i.e., of making special provision to the people of different parts of State for admission to educational institutions," the High Court said.
The petitioners shall be eligible to admission in the state medical colleges, if their domicile is of State of Telangana or if they are permanent residents of the State, it was ordered.
The High Court also granted the State a liberty to frame the guidelines or rules on when a student can be considered as a permanent resident of the State of Telangana.
This led to the appeal before the apex court.