2 MBBS seats await court verdict

PUDUCHERRY: Two MBBS seats under CENTAC still remain vacant despite the admissions set to close on Friday. While one seat is vacant in Indira Gandhi Government Medical College and Research institute (IGMCRI), the other is in the self-financing college of Vinayaga Mission Medical College (VMMC), Karaikal.The CENTAC is awaiting  the orders from High Court to fill up the seats, said CENTAC convenor and director of Indira Gandhi Government Medical College and Research Institute Dr P Jayakumar.  The  direction to reserve the seats was given after two students moved the High court in support of their claim for the seats. Now only after the court’s verdict the seats could be filled. If the order comes on Friday before noon, there could still be light at the end of the tunnel, but if orders come late the seats would go unoccupied.For the IGMCRI, one seat was allocated to Mahe Scheduled caste, as per the regional reservation and caste-based reservation policy of the government. However, with Mahe region having no scheduled caste, no student from the region was eligible to apply. This made a student approach the High court seeking conversion of the seat to general category  objecting to filling it up with Scheduled caste candidate from other regions of the UT as it would lessen the seats allocated under regional reservation to Mahe region. The issue becomes complex as allocating it to SC  from other regions would fulfil the criteria of 16 per cent reservation in the UT, but would violate the regional reservation. On the other hand, allocating it to Mahe general will fulfil the regional reservation criteria, but violates the reservation for scheduled caste.The other seat in VMMC is under litigation, after  a student who was allocated a seat in the college under MBC quota in the previous year could not get admission, despite his CENTAC sponsorship, as the college  had closed admissions for the year. He moved the court seeking admission in the current year, in the college under the same quota.Meanwhile, in  IGMCRI  for the first time, 21 non-resident Indian students have been admitted with a tuition fee of $90,000 payable in two instalments for the full term of the MBBS courses.