The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday directed two deemed universities — Yenepoya and K.S. Hedge — both of Mangalore, to admit candidates for the first year medical course sent to their institutions by the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA).
The direction will benefit 32 candidates who had been refused admission by the universities saying that they were deemed universities and they were not required to abide by the State Government order on admission of students.
A Division Bench comprising Justice V. Gopala Gowda and Justice K. Bhatkatavsala passed the order after a marathon hearing. The Bench was dealing with petitions by the students selected under the KEA, deemed universities and students selected after they appeared for an all-India test.
The Bench dismissed petitions by the universities questioning the action of the Government in the allotment of government-quota seats. They said since the Centre had granted them deemed university status, they did not come under the purview of the State Government. Therefore, the State could not allot seats to students who underwent counselling by KEA.
Advocate-General (AG) Ashok Harnahalli submitted that the State had given a no-objection certificate to the two institutions to obtain deemed university status only after they volunteered to surrender 25 seats each to the State Government.
Students selected by the management of the two universities said they had obtained seats after passing an al India test. They urged the court to protect their rights.
The Bench dismissed the petitions of the two universities and the petition by students selected by the management. It allowed petitions by students selected by the KEA and directed the institutions to admit them.
It said that Nitte (K.S. Hedge) was not a deemed university as it was yet to disaffiliate itself from Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS). Any deemed university should not be affiliated to any institution and it should be independent.
It said that the conduct of the universities in first agreeing to surrender seats and then retracting from the undertaking was not acceptable.
It said no-objection certificate (NoC) from the State Government was compulsory and one of the requirements for an institution seeking deemed university status.
Tuesday’s order ensures that Yenepoya would have to admit 20 students and K.S. Hedge 12 students. Sixteen other students who were refused admission by these institutions were subsequently admitted to other medical colleges. The court said as admission of students under the government quota had come down this year, the institutions would have to make it up next year.
In addition to 25 seats, Yenepoya would have to surrender five more seats, while K.S. Hedge would have to give to the Government 13 seats in addition to the 25 it had promised.
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