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The Central Government has today informed the Supreme Court that the prayers sought in the petition will have nationwide ramifications in a plea challenging notification putting Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) at par with Non-Resident Indian (NRI) students for all India Entrance Examinations.

A division bench of Justice S Abdul Nazeer and Justice Krishna Murari said that the directions sought in the petition are harmless.

The bench was hearing a petition challenging the government-issued notification dated March 4, 2021 that put OCIs on par with NRIs (non-resident Indians) with regard to all-India entrance examinations such as National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), etc. 

It was thus notified that OCIs would compete with NRIs for the limited number of seats in technical and medical education, paying the same amount of fee as NRIs.

A group of OCI students challenged this notification on the ground of arbitrariness while alleging that it was discriminatory because like other Indian students, many OCI students have had several years of schooling in India and their families also worked in India.

The bench has kept the matter for hearing immediately after Diwali over the request of the Counsel for the petitioner stating that the NEET results are about to be declared as the Supreme Court has lifted the ban imposed by the Bombay High Court.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had allowed overseas citizens of India (OCI) to be considered for admissions to all open category undergraduate medical seats for the academic year 2021-22, at par with Indian citizens.

Background

 

The Bench went on to tell ASG Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the central government that, “when you (government) can bring non-citizens from neighbouring countries to India and make them citizens, except for one community, these (OCIs) are very much Indians. India is known for its inclusiveness. Look at what your CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) does. It makes even non-citizens as citizens of this country”.

The government had issued a notification on March 4 that put OCIs on par with NRIs (non-resident Indians) with regard to all-India entrance examinations such as National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), etc. 

It was thus notified that OCIs would compete with NRIs for the limited number of seats in technical and medical education, paying the same amount of fee as NRIs.

A group of OCI students challenged this notification on the ground of arbitrariness while alleging that it was discriminatory because like other Indian students, many OCI students have had several years of schooling in India and their families also worked in India.

It was their main contention that the government had abruptly withdrawn the benefits available to them in the middle of the examination process.

Senior Advocates Vikas Singh, Anitha Shenoy and Devadatt Kamat told the Court that the petitioners could not afford the exorbitant admission fees that accompanied seats for NRIs whose families were living and working in the global west and had more access to financial resources.

ASG Bhati on the other hand, submitted that OCIs should not be given any extraordinary consideration since they have voluntarily chosen to give up Indian citizenship and switched allegiance to some other nation, unlike the NRIs who continue being Indian citizens.

To this, the Bench responded by saying: 

“They all have Indian origin...they are not outsiders. They have sent dollars for our country too. But many of them don’t have money like the NRIs...they had a legitimate expectation but suddenly you withdrew that benefit. Such a notification can be declared prima facie arbitrary if not illegal.” 

This prompted the Court to issue an interim order in favour of the OCI students, stating that the petitioners will be eligible to all the medical seats where OCIs were eligible before the March 4 notification.

“Therefore, we direct the respondent- National Testing Agency to declare the result of the examination i.e. NEET UG 2021 taken by the petitioners and the eligible petitioners are permitted to appear for the counselling in the General category…..It is made clear that the aforesaid interim relief is confined to the Academic Year 2021-2022 only”, states the Order.

Case Title: Dr. Radhika Thapetta Vs. Union of India