J U D G M E N T

Murali Purushothaman, J.

The Kerala Private Medical College Management Association, an association stated to be formed to champion the cause of Private Medical Colleges in the State, approached the writ court seeking directions to respondents 3 and 4 to grant time for fresh registration in the NRI quota to the eligible students before commencement of the Mop-Up counselling. The learned Single Judge dismissed the writ petition and the association has come up in intra court appeal. I. A. No. 1 of 2022 in W. A. No. 488 of 2022 is filed by one of the member college of the said association and its Chairman, seeking leave to file the writ appeal. Leave has been granted and both the writ appeals are heard and disposed of by this common judgment.

2. The brief facts leading to the writ petition are as follows:-

3. In the Medical Colleges owned by the association members, MBBS courses as well as various Post Graduate Courses are conducted by the National Testing Agency. Pursuant to the publication of the result of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), the 3rd respondent published the results/rank list for the State Quota based on the NEET i.e., KEAM 2021 for the Academic year 2021-2022. Immediately thereafter, Exhibit P2 rank list for eligible candidates in the NRI quota was published. The said rank list, consisting of about 618 rank holders, got exhausted after two rounds of counseling. Despite the exhaustion of the Rank List, about 57 seats in the NRI quota are lying vacant in the member colleges.

4. The fees for the various Medical Colleges conducted by the members of the petitioner association is fixed by the 4th respondent after taking into account the fee receivable from the NRI Quota as well. If the NRI seats remain vacant after counseling, the said seats would revert to the State Merit Quota seats resulting in huge financial loss to the members of the association.

5. The petitioner contends that numerous eligible candidates were unable to exercise their option due to the restrictions imposed due to the pandemic. In the said circumstances, the petitioner submitted Ext.P3 representation requesting to invite fresh applications to fill up vacant seats in the NRI Quota before the Mop up allotment.

However their request was not heeded to.

6. According to the petitioner, this Court as well as the Apex Court held that the fee prescribed and collected from NRIs, in excess of the fee prescribed for non-NRI candidates, are to be utilized for benefiting the students from economically weaker sections of the society. In view of the above salutary reason, it is only just and proper that the entire NRI Quota seats are filled up or else, it would be financially disastrous for all the member colleges. Accordingly the petitioner association preferred the writ petition seeking the following reliefs:

“(i) Issue a writ of mandamus or such other writ, order or direction directing the respondents 3 and 4 to grant time for fresh registration in NRI Quota to the eligible students before commencement of the Mop-up counseling.

(ii) Issue a writ of Mandamus or such other writ, order or direction directing the 3rd Respondent to consider and pass orders in Exhibit P3 representation within a time limit to be fixed by this Hon;ble Court.

(iii) Permit the members of the Petitioner association to admit NEET qualified eligible students who produce the necessary documents in NRI Quota before the cut of date stipulated by the Kerala University of Health Sciences vide Exhibit P4, in the event the Respondents does not invite fresh applications in the NRI Quota.

(iv) Permit the members of the petitioner Association to collect fees at the rate prescribed for NRI Quota from students admitted in the vacant NRI Quota seats in the event the respondent Nos. 3 and 4 does not grant time for fresh registration in NRI Quota to the eligible students before commencement of the Mop-up counseling.”

7. When the writ petition came up for consideration before the learned S