Stalemate over third round of counselling of MBB, BDS courses continues as Karnataka High Court delivers divergent verdict on KEA’s procedure

The dispute over seat allocation for MBBS and BDS courses in the third round of counseling in the state remained unresolved on Wednesday, with two judges in a division bench of the Karnataka High Court giving a different verdict on the correctness of the procedure adopted by the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) in allocating seats in this round of counseling.

Setting aside the third round provisional allotment list announced by KEA on October 24, Justice Jayant Banerji directed KEA to reconduct the third round process strictly in line with the directions of the Supreme Court. UP Status Vs. Bhavna Tiwari. He directed the KEA to finalize the two phases of the third round of consultation with the final list on seat allocation on or before December 2.

However, Justice K V Aravind allowed KEA to go ahead and complete this round quickly based on the provisional allotment list released on October 24 and complete all remaining rounds of counseling by December 10.

According to a different view, the petitions submitted by some candidates objecting to the allocation procedure in the third round will have to be heard by a third judge, and until then the counseling process will remain suspended.

Allotment to around 900 MBBS seats, including vacant seats under management quota, has been pending since October 26 as the case was pending on the petition.

different appearance

Justice Banerji in her judgment held that the high court Bhavna Tiwari The lawsuit had said that promotion windows after the second round should be allowed for accepted candidates to move to better seats without reopening counseling to new entrants.

Justice Banerji said that fresh registrations for the first phase of third round counseling for 443 new seats cannot be made by KEA and pointed out that only candidates admitted after the second round of counseling will be eligible to participate in the first phase of third round counseling. Therefore, the provisional seat allotment list for third round candidates was against the directions of the apex court, Justice Banerji said.

NMC regulations

Quoting Chapter 17 of the National Medical Commission’s (NMC) Postgraduate Medical Education Regulations (GMER) 2023, Justice Banerji said the 443 newly added seats in some medical colleges could not be allotted in the third round of counselling. He said these seats in the third round led to difficulties in considering students for seat allocation.

However, Justice Aravind, in his judgment, said that while the counseling process was going on, the seats were increased in many medical colleges across the country and admissions were made in these seats across the country, including All India Quota (AIQ).

Therefore, not granting admission to the newly added 443 seats in the third round in Karnataka would amount to a discriminatory practice, Justice Aravind said, while also pointing out that the NMC itself had increased the intake in many colleges while the second and third round of counseling was ongoing and offered increased seats for allotment through the ongoing counseling process across the country.