SC upholds Telangana's 4-year residence rule to avail domicile quota in medical admissions

The Supreme Court said that the rule mandating candidates to have resided or studied in Telangana for four consecutive years to avail the domicile quota for admission into the State's medical colleges, is not exclusionary, arbitrary and constitutionally invalid.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday allowed an appeal filed by the Telangana government against the High Court's ordering that a permanent resident need not be required to study or reside in Telangana for four continuous years to get the benefit of domicile quota in medical admissions.

A bench of Chief Justice of India B R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran upheld the 2017 Rules, which stood amended in 2024, mandating that a candidate must study for four consecutive years in the State of Telangana to qualify for the "local candidate" quota in MBBS and BDS courses.

The court had reserved its judgement on August 5.

The court set aside the Telangana High Court's order that read down the State's domicile rule for admissions in medical colleges.

"There was no warrant for a reading down when the definition is clear, in consonance with the Presidential Order and similar rules having been upheld by this court as coming out from the binding precedents. We find no reason to take a different view with respect to the amended rule also; 15 per cent having been conceded to the All India quota," the bench said.

It said that the rule mandating candidates to have resided or studied in Telangana for four consecutive years to avail the domicile quota for admission into the State's medical colleges, is not exclusionary, arbitrary and constitutionally invalid.

"We have to state that without a definition of what constitutes residence or at least without reference to a statute or rule prescribing the issuance of a residence certificate, the directions issued by the High Court would only result in an anomalous situation, making the reservation unworkable and open to a series of litigation," the bench said in its judgment.

While allowing the appeal filed by the state government, the court said that the Telangana Medical and Dental Colleges Admission (Admission into MBBS & BDS Courses) Rules, 2017 provided domicile quota benefit to those candidates taken out of the State due to their parents' employment in defence services or public sector undertakings.

"The said proviso should allay and mitigate the grievances of those who claim that they were taken out of the State by compulsion of the movement of their parents outside the State by reason of employment in Government/All-India Services/ Corporations or Public Sector Undertakings constituted as an instrumentality of the State of Telangana as also defence and paramilitary forces who trace their nativity to the State, subject to the conditions thereunder. With only the said reservation, we uphold the Rules of 2017 as it stood amended in 2024," the bench held.

The court was also informed in the previous academic year on concession made by the government, students who did not fall strictly under the definition were granted admission to mitigate the grievance of the hardship. The bench clarified that the admissions so made would not be disturbed.

The Telangana government had moved the top court challenging the HC's order holding that the state’s permanent residents cannot be denied benefits of admissions in the medical and dental colleges only in the ground that they lived outside the state for sometime.

The state government contended that the Telangana's domicile criteria were rooted in a government rule backed by a Presidential Order.

It claimed the High Court wrongly held Rule 3(a) of the amended Telangana Medical and Dental Colleges Admission (Admission into MBBS & BDS Courses) Rules, 2017, to be interpreted to mean the respondents (candidates) were eligible to admission in the medical colleges in Telangana.

It said the state has the authority to frame legislative competence to determine eligibility criteria for medical admissions.

The Telangana Medical and Dental Colleges Admission (Admission into MBBS & BDS Courses) Rules, 2017, amended in 2024, entitled only those students, who have studied for last four years up to Class 12 in the state, to admissions in the medical and dental colleges under the state quota.

Telangana government alleged that the expansion of the definition, on the subjective satisfaction of the HC, would lead to frustrating the special provision under Article 371D, intended to confer a benefit to those local candidates in the State of Telangana who can be given preferential admission to the medical courses.

"The true test being not the claim of nativity by descent, but by their residence and their continued education within the State, culminating with the appearance in the qualifying examination within the State, establishing the real bonding and true integration into the local environment. This raises a valid presumption that they would continue working, after qualifying, in the locality, serving the people of the state," the state contended.

The respondents-students, for their part, contended that the definition of local candidate itself was gross and did not reckon the vagaries of life and employment of the parents, which took the children away from the State, while roots remained all the same within the State.