After apology, Karnataka HC tells authorities to allot seats to minority students

The High Court has directed the authorities to allot the remaining vacant seats, after two rounds of counselling, to linguistic minority quota students, except those seats available under NRI and other quotas, at G R Medical College Hospital in Mangaluru.

A division bench passed this order after the undersecretary to the Department of Medical Education tendered an unconditional apology for not complying with the order of the court with regard to the allocation of seats.

The college was granted the status of a linguistic minority on January 24, 2022. It moved the High Court contending that the state government did not give effect to the order insofar as pertaining to the seat matrix. The college sought directions to effect necessary changes in the seat matrix for allocation of seats to linguistic minorities for admission to undergraduate courses in medicine.

On March 5, 2022, an undertaking was furnished on behalf of the petitioner that they will accommodate all 75 candidates, who have indicated their choice number one and choice number two in respect of the petitioner college. The court had then directed the authorities to treat the petitioner college as a linguistic minority institution and work out a seat matrix and also to permit it to participate in the second round of counselling.

The undersecretary, Department of Medical Education, tendered an unconditional apology in an affidavit for not allotting the seats in the second round of counselling stating that the counselling had commenced on March 4, 2022.

The division bench accepted the unconditional apology with a word of caution to the officers concerned to be more careful in the future.

The bench also modified the earlier interim order and said that the remaining government seats should also be allotted to the linguistic minorities in the mop-up round or in any other subsequent round which may be held hereinafter.

The court also said that any disobedience of these directions would be tantamount to contempt and it would initiate proceedings against the officers concerned.