The Supreme Court recently passed an interim order to allow OCI Candidates who had applied for counselling under Kerala Engineering Architecture Medical 2022 ("KEAM") in Kerala to apply for State and All India Examinations and counselling against the NRI seat by production of proof of his/her OCI status and domicile in a state/India.
The bench of Justices S Abdul Nazeer and Krishna Murari further said that the OCI candidates could apply without without being required to upload documents establishing NRI status.
Since the registration had closed on May 10, 2022 at 5:00 PM the bench also extended the time for submitting the applications in the specified manner by 1 week.
"The petitioners-applicants and all similarly situated aspirants are permitted to apply for State and All India Examinations and counselling, particularly those conducted by the State of Kerala against the NRI seat by production of proof of his/her OCI status and domicile in a state/India and without being required to upload documents establishing NRI status, subject to the final outcome of this petition", the Court's interim order stated..
The application was filed in the writ petition wherein the OCI candidates have sought to challenge the notification dated March 4, 2021 issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs ("impugned notification") which prohibits OCI's from competing for any of the seats in the general category and have been made eligible only for seats available to Non- Resident Indians.
It was argued in the application that, due to the requirement of NRI documents, OCIs who seek to apply for counselling to medical and allied courses in Kerala, would be precluded at the very threshold from applying for these courses.
"Not only are general category seats closed to them due to the impugned clause, but they also cannot apply under the NRI quota. Thus, the Petitioners are unable to register for counselling for any of the seats under KEAM-2022. This arbitrary situation has been caused by the impugned clause in the 2021 notification, leading to the Petitioners having to forfeit the chance to apply for counselling due to a lack of required documentation that they cannot possibly procure," the application had stated.
Case Title: Vyas Ramasubramanian v. Union of India & Ors| WP(C) 155/2022
Click Here To Read/Download Order
