The Madras High Court in an interim order today directed the union government to state whether it was inclined to make any provision to admit wards of Sri Lankan refugees to MBBS courses in medical colleges.
The first bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice T S Sivagnanam, before whom a petition by advocate R Sri Priya came up, stated this after perusing the communication by Additional Solicitor General G Rajagopalan from the Home Ministry stating that such children are not entitled to admission under the scheme which accommodates candidates from friendly nations, including SL nationals.
The bench made it clear they should keep in mind that the present case relates to a child of a Sri Lankan refugee, born and educated in India.
The petitioner had sought a direction to the Dean, Government Kilpauk Medical college, Chennai, to reserve a MBBS seat to one Nandini whose application was refused solely on the ground she was the daughter of a Sri Lankan refugee.
The petitioner, who filed the PIL based on a news report in an English daily, submitted that Nandini's parents hailing from Jaffna had come to Tamil Nadu as refugees in 1990 and settled down at a refugee camp at Arachalur in Erode district.
She passed the matric exam with flying colors, scoring 1170 out of 1200 marks, applied for admission and was called for counselling. But her candidature was rejected on the sole ground that she was the daughter of a Sri Lankan refugee.
On September 9, 2014, the court had in an interim order directed the Director of Medical Education to clarify on the facilities to be given for higher education for a child of Lankan Tamil refugees, born in India.
The petitioner had submitted that the case was a 'classic example' of how the state seeks to override the human rights guaranteed to refugees under the Constitution and the International Convention relating to status of refugees.
The Joint Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Department, had submitted that her application was in open category, the cutoff marks for which were 198.25 for 2014-15 whereas she had got 197.5. So it would not have come for consideration.
He said Sri Lankan refugees have been deleted from some special categories, based on the November 1, 2002 HC judgement.
The bench had said authorities should clarify what could be the status of such a child of Tamil refugees who happens to be born in India..."whether any benefit at all is to be given to wards of Tamil refugee or not."
The bench pointed out that despite this, the girl had excelled in studies and sought to know if she was to be considered as eligible for 85 per cent of seats meant for the state quota as a general candidate or even that was sought to be denied to her.
