Gujarat HC upholds domicile clause for medical admissions

The Gujarat High Court today upheld the state government's 2017 medical admission rules, stipulating that a candidate needed to pass Class 10 and Class 12 from Gujarat schools to be eligible for the state quota.

A division bench of Chief Justice Subhash Reddy and Justice V M Pancholi also upheld the state government's 2018 amendment to the Gujarat Professional PG Medical Educational Courses (Regulation of Admission) Rules, 2017, which require a candidate to be domicile of Gujarat to apply for the state quota.

The high court, however, asked the government to consider giving admission to those candidates who were domiciles of Gujarat but had passed Class 10 from other states.

Several candidates had approached the court last year as well as this year, challenging the 2017 rules and the 2018 amendment to the rules, whereby the "domicile" clause was added, after being rendered disqualified for admission for different courses in the medical colleges of Gujarat under the state quota for any or all of the above reasons.

The court had earlier granted an interim relief to these candidates to apply for admission, subject to the outcome of the petitions.

The government had framed the Gujarat Professional Medical Educational Courses (Regulation of Admission and Fixation of Fees) Rules, 2017 on June 23, 2017.

Rule 4(3) of the rules states that for being eligible for admission to MBBS and other courses through NEET (National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test), a candidate must have passed Class 10 and Class 12 from a school in Gujarat.

The amended rule 4(1)(A) sought a candidate to be a domicile of Gujarat.

Both these rules were challenged by a number of candidates.

While the petitioners maintained that the definition of domicile was vague, the government submitted that domicile meant a candidate should be a continuous resident of Gujarat for a certain number of years, P P Majmudar, the lawyer representing the petitioners, said.

The scheme of medical admissions is such that 15 per cent of the seats in each medical college are filled through the national quota, while the remaining 85 per cent by the respective states.