The Supreme Court on Monday directed
the West Bengal government to give admission to 65
students under the NRI quota in the first year MBBS
course for the academic year 2005-06 in the nine colleges
run by the state.It was making an exception and not
a rule.
The Court had earlier quashed their admissions
to two medical colleges saying that the NRI quota
could not exceed 15 per cent of the total 200 seats
available in the colleges, which had admitted over
100 such students under the NRI quota
"We would have been a lot happier if we had
been placed this year itself. But our only option
was to pray for placement next year. At least that
has materialized. We are happy," said Gargi
Bhattacharya, one of the ousted students.
"We have lost one full academic for no fault
of ours. But now the Supreme Court has ordered our
absorption. At least we have been able to prove
our admission was not illegal," said Soumyadip
Chatterjee, another student.
The students had been on a relay hunger-strike since
December, 2004 and their predicament was a huge
embarrassment for the West Bengal government.
