Now Reading: NRI quota in NEET is unreserved, cannot be combined with OBC: Karnataka HC
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NRI quota in NEET is unreserved, cannot be combined with OBC: Karnataka HC
NRI quota in NEET is unreserved, cannot be combined with OBC: Karnataka HC
The Karnataka High Court has ruled that the 15% Non-Resident Indian (NRI) quota in NEET-UG counselling is a separate, unreserved category and cannot be combined with Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservation. The court rejected a petition by an OBC candidate seeking to participate under an ‘NRI-OBC’ category, after also finding she had not secured the qualifying marks required under the NRI quota.
A bench of Justice M. Nagaprasanna and Justice Hema Kulkarni observed that the notified admission brochure treats the NRI quota as unreserved, and that a candidate can opt for only one form of reservation under the counselling scheme. The court referred to the NEET-UG 2026 Information Bulletin, which states that a candidate can opt for only one type of reservation.
The candidate had secured 48.33% and did not meet the basic qualifying requirement for consideration under the NRI quota. The court held that the petitioner could not overcome that deficiency by asking the court to introduce social-category reservation within the NRI quota. The petition was dismissed for lack of merit.
Indian Opinion Analysis
The judgment clarifies a recurring ambiguity in medical admissions by firmly separating the NRI quota from social-category reservations. The court’s reading of the counselling bulletin means that NRI-sponsored seats are treated as general category seats, denying OBC, SC or ST candidates any layered benefit if they opt for that quota. The petitioner’s failure to meet the NRI threshold marks also closed any room for sympathetic interpretation. The ruling leaves unresolved how genuine NRI-sponsored candidates from backward communities can be accommodated, but the immediate next step is that the remaining counselling rounds will proceed without an NRI-OBC category.
Source: verdictum.in
This brief was synthesised by AI from the source linked above. Methodology and corrections.
