Supreme Court rejects Punjab’s NRI quota plea, says ‘fraud must end’

This is nothing but a money spinning tactic of the state, observed a bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra

The Supreme Court on September 24 dismissed the Punjab government’s appeal challenging a High Court verdict quashing its decision to expand the definition of ‘NRI quota’ for admissions in medical colleges across the state.

This fraud must come to an end now, the apex court said, according to a report by news agency PTI.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on September 10 struck down a state government decision to expand the NRI quota for medical college admissions. The AAP-led government had in August proposed including distant relatives of NRIs, such as uncles, aunts, grandparents, and cousins, under the 15 percent NRI quota. The court ruled that this expansion was not in line with the intent of the quota.

This is nothing but a money spinning tactic of the state, observed a bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.

"We will dismiss all the petitions. This NRI business is nothing but a fraud. We will put an end to all this.... now the so called precedents must give way to primacy of law," said the bench.
It termed the High Court’s verdict as “absolutely right”.

“Look at the deleterious consequences, the candidates who have three times higher marks will lose admission (in NEET-UG courses) and all these people will come from the backdoor,” the Supreme Court said.

The top court added that distant relatives of a ‘mama, tai, taya’, who are settled abroad, will get admissions ahead of meritorious candidates and this cannot be allowed.