'Hit By Doctrine Of Laches': Telangana High Court After Several Aspirants Seek Permanent Resident Status For MBBS, BDS Admission

The Telangana High Court has witnessed a surge in pleas with a prayer to consider the petitioner-medical aspirants as 'permanent residents' in the admission process of MBBS and BDS courses.

The division bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice N.V. Shravan Kumar has rejected all claims with the same finding - 'they are not entitled to the said relief due to delay and laches.'

This comes after the High Court's recent decision wherein it had read down Rule 3(III)(B) Telangana Medical and Dental College Admission (Admission into MBBS and BDS Courses) Rules, 2017 making it not applicable to permanent residents. The said Rule mandates that candidates must study in the local area for 4 consecutive years to get admission in the said courses as local candidates. 

The Court had then directed the students to produce residency certificates to prove their status as permanent residents, upon which local candidate reservation would be extended to them. 

Similar reliefs were prayed for in the numerous petitions filed on Monday by medical aspirants. The advocates on behalf of the petitioners contended that since reliefs as prayed for were granted to different students on the same grounds, the petitioners were also entitled to similar relief.

Chief Justice Alok Aradhe noted that all aspirants were treated as local candidates on 2nd August 2023, nonetheless, the petitioners only approached the Courts on 11th September 2023. He further noted that all petitions that were being heard were filed with a delay of at least a month

In one of the writs filed, Chief Justice Aradhe remarked verbally:

"You have seen that petitions of others have been allowed, so now you have filed this petition. See if you had been along with those petitioners, we would definitely grant the relief. The admission process is a time-bound one. We can see the queue waiting. If we allow your relief today, tomorrow hundred lunch motions will be filed. That we can't do. Ee have already taken a view. You are hit by the principle of delay and laches."

Some of the students also placed residency certificates before the Court, although they themselves admitted that they had not been residing in Telangana and had temporarily shifted to other states to pursue education.

"How is the Tahsildar issuing these Certificates? I think he wants to be suspended. It seems like they (the tahsildar) don’t want an allowance. How has everybody gotten this certificate?" the CJ remarked.