Supreme Court upholds Telangana's domicile rule for MBBS admissions
Supreme Court of India
New Delhi: Allowing the appeal of the Telangana Government, the Supreme Court recently upheld the State's domicile rule that permitted students who have studied for the last four years up to Class 12 in the state, for admissions in medical and dental colleges under the state quota.
In its order, the Apex Court bench comprising Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran upheld the Telangana Medical and Dental Colleges Admission (Admission into MBBS & BDS Courses) Rules, 2017, which was amended in 2024.
Under this rule, to be eligible for admission to state quota medical and dental seats through the National Eligibility-Entrance Test (NEET), a student must have pursued Classes 9 to 12 in the State.
Earlier, the domicile policy was challenged before the Telangana High Court. Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that more than 50 pleas were filed before the Telangana HC challenging the validity of Rule 3(a) of the Telangana Medical and Dental Colleges Admission (Admission into MBBS & BDS Courses) Rules 2017 as amended vide the GO dated July 19, 2024, which made it mandatory for the MBBS and BDS aspirants to study continuously from Classes 9 to 12 in the State.
While considering the matter, the Telangana HC had held that permanent residents of the State did not need to study in Telangana for 4 continuous years for MBBS and BDS admission in the domicile quota seats. The HC bench had observed that the State's permanent residents could not be denied benefits of admissions in medical colleges only because they lived outside the State for some time.
However, the HC Division bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice J. Sreenivas Rao had declined to strike down Rule 3(a) of the 2017 Rules, which prescribes the criteria for local candidates, in its entirety.
Also Read: Supreme Court to decide on Telangana domicile quota for MBBS admissions
Back then, the HC bench had reasoned that striking down the provision in its entirety would have the unintended consequence of opening the State quota seats to students from across the country. Instead, the Court had read down the rule to exempt permanent residents of Telangana from the four-year study requirement, while holding that the interpretation in this regard was consistent with Article 371D(2)(b)(ii) of the Constitution, which empowers States to frame special provisions for local candidates in educational institutions.
However, challenging the HC order, the State had approached the top court bench. In its appeal, the Telangana Government argued that the High Court's expansion of the definition of a "local candidate" undermined the special protection under Article 371D, which was designed to ensure preferential access for students genuinely integrated into the State's educational system.
On the other hand, the students argued that the definition was unduly rigid and overlooked circumstances such as the transfer of parents in government or allied services, due to which, children get forced to pursue their studies outside of Telangana despite maintaining strong ties to the State.
The top court on August 5 reserved its verdict on the pleas, including one from the Telangana government, against the HC order that struck down its domicile rule for admissions in medical colleges in the state. The state was represented by senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi and lawyer Sravan Kumar Karnam, PTI has reported.
Now, the Apex Court bench comprising Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai and Justice K. Vinod Chandran allowed the State’s appeal and affirmed the constitutionality of the Telangana Medical and Dental Colleges Admission Rules, 2017 (2017 Rules) as amended in 2024.
"The appeals of the State and the university are allowed, setting aside both the impugned high court judgments. The students’ writ petitions stand dismissed," observed the bench.
As per the latest media report by The Hindu, while setting aside the High Court bench's order, the top court bench observed that in the absence of a statutory definition of residence or a prescribed framework for issuing residence certificates, the directions would result in an "anomalous situation", rendering the domicile unworkable and exposing it to a spate of litigation.
Further, the rule took note of a further amendment proposed by the State Government, adding a proviso to Rule 3 to permit candidates who had studied outside Telangana during the four qualifying years to still be treated as local candidates if they belonged to specified categories, including children of State government employees, All India Services officers, defence personnel, or employees of State corporations and agencies subject to all-India transfers.
"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," observed the Supreme Court.
Further, the Apex Court clarified that the admissions made in the previous academic order, based on a concession extended by the government to mitigate the hardship, would not be disturbed.
