Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh High Court has ordered Dr NTR University of Health Sciences not to fill one seat in the open merit category at Kurnool Medical College (KMC) during the third phase of counselling for admission into the first year MBBS programme through NEET-UG.A two-judge division bench, comprising Chief Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur and Justice Ravi Cheemalapati, heard a petition filed by Mandela Shaik Saniya Azra on Saturday. The petitioner’s counsel, Tagore Yadav Yaragorla, submitted that his client secured 626 marks in the NEET-UG exam conducted by the NTA and applied for admission under the BC-E category, as NTRUHS reserved eight seats for this category in its seat matrix. The counsel stated that Kurnool Medical College filled only seven seats under the BC-E category instead of the allocated eight and diverted the remaining seat to the general open merit category. The petitioner was allotted a seat in the Anantapur government medical college in the open category. Since the petitioner hails from Kurnool, he expressed interest in taking admission at KMC. The court observed that the action of NTRUHS in changing the seat matrix without cause or justification would prejudice the interests of the petitioner. The court opined that the seat matrix could not be altered after the selection process had commenced. The court suggested that, as the petitioner had already been selected in the open category for Anantapur government medical college, he could be considered for admission against the one available seat in the general open category at KMC in the upcoming third phase of counselling. However, as NTRUHS’s standing counsel, T.V. Sri Devi, requested additional time to file a response, the court scheduled the next hearing for October 22.Andhra Pradesh, AP News, AP Special News, High Court
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