Don't fill seats till plea is decided, colleges told

The High Court has directed the Comed-K and the Karnataka Religious and Linguistic Minority Professional Colleges Association not to fill postgraduate medical seats under the management quota till the petition filed by in-service students is decided.

The court was hearing a petition against the State government’s decision to amend the rules, requiring doctors to complete at least six years in service to qualify for postgraduate courses.

The petitioners had submitted that a few candidates chosen for higher studies did not fulfil the requirement.

Justice Ashok B Hinchigeri directed the private institutes not to fill the management quota in case seats under the government quota remain unfilled.

The High Court direction comes in the wake of the Supreme Court directive to complete the PG admission process before May 31.

Dental course

The High Court on Wednesday reserved orders in connection with the petition filed by the Comed-K challenging the order passed by a single-judge Bench quashing counselling for postgraduate dental courses and directing it to conduct the process afresh.

A Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice Vikramajit Sen and Justice B V Nagarathna, during the hearing, hinted at accepting the offer of the Comed-K and said that 194 candidates who chose seats during counselling on May 19 should not be put to hardship for the sake of a few students who were barred from attending the seat selection process for bringing faulty demand drafts (DDs).

Justice Ashok B Hinchigeri had ordered recounselling on May 25 after some students moved the court. The judge allowed their prayer and ordered fresh counselling on
May 29.

Original counterfoils

The aggrieved students were not permitted to attend counselling for bringing demand drafts (DDs) from private banks. A few DDs did not contain the original bank counterfoils, as sought by the Comed-K.

The petitioners had termed the Comed-K decision to debar them “arbitrary, unreasonable, capricious and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution.”