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“Overseas Citizen of India (OCI): Overseas Citizen of India candidates can apply against Foreign National Seats. OCI candidates are not required to obtained NOC, however must upload the scan copy of OCI card on or before date(s) mentioned in Important Dates Section of Prospectus Part-A. Section V: Seats available for admission into postgraduate courses for July 2023 Session of various INIs The seats available for admission into postgraduate courses in participating INIs for July 2023 session are of two types

4. The petitioner’s application listed her as the OCI candidate, and she appeared in the examination in that capacity; the results declared on 13.05.2023 showed that she had secured 96.73 percentile, and her overall rank was 1902. It is asserted that this list also recognized her in OCI category. Her roll number was mentioned in the provisionally qualified list of candidates published on 13.05.2023.

5. The communication dated 25.05.20231 provided information for the first and second round of online seat allocation by institution and subject wise. The AIIMS issued a schedule for online seat allocation for admission to PG courses (Notice No. 97/2023) on 10.06.2023. On the same day, the petitioner was informed that she would be treated as a Foreign National as she had disclosed her status to be as OCI Candidate2. She was informed that the mock round of application process had begun on 11.06.2023 and would end on 13.06.2023.

47. As noted, the right of the OCI Cardholders is a midway right in the absence of dual citizenship. When a statutory right was conferred and such right is being withdrawn through a notification, the process for withdrawal is required to demonstrate that the action taken is reasonable and has nexus to the purpose. It should not be arbitrary, without basis and exercise of such power cannot be exercised unmindful of consequences merely because it is a sovereign power. To examine this aspect, in addition to the contentions urged by the learned Additional Solicitor General we have also taken note of the objection statement filed with the writ petition. Though detailed contentions are urged with regard to the status of a citizen and the sovereign power of the State, as already noted, in these petitions the sovereign power has not been questioned but the manner in which it is exercised in the present circumstance is objected. The contention of learned Additional Solicitor General is that the intention from the beginning was to grant parity to OCI Cardholders only with NRIs. On that aspect as already noted above we have seen the nature of the benefit that had been extended to the petitioners and the similarly placed petitioners under the notifications of the year 2005, 2007 and 2009. The further contention insofar as equating the OCI Cardholders to compete only for the seats which are reserved for NRIs and to exclude the OCI Cardholders for admission against any seat reserved exclusively for the Indian citizens, across the board, even to the persons who were bestowed the right earlier, it is stated that the rationale is to protect the rights of the Indian citizens in such matters where State may give preference to its citizens vis-à-vis foreigners holding OCI Cards. It is further averred in the counter that number of seats available for medical and engineering courses in India are very limited and that it does not fully cater to the requirement of even the Indian citizens. It is therefore contended that the right to admission to such seats should primarily be available to the Indian citizens instead of foreigners, including OCI Cardholders.

17. In the present case, although the OCI Card relied upon by the petitioner on 04.08.2022, the fact that she was in fact issued the OCI registration card first, on 02.11.2015. In such circumstances, the petitioner’s eligibility to claim the benefit of OCI card holder in terms of the ruling in Anushka (supra) is undeniable. The rejection of her candidature at this stage, i.e. on 19.06.2023 is not supportable in law. She is consequently directed to be considered in remaining counselling rounds by the AIIMS and all participating institutions for PG Medical seats. It is clarified that the consideration would be regarding seats that are unfilled on the date of this judgment whether reserved for SC/ST/OBC or other categories and such as specially earmarked for Bhutanese candidates etc. if they can be filled by other candidates, like her. Furthermore, this facility should be open to the petitioner as well as other candidates based upon the available records of those issued OCI cards prior to 04.03.2021 and who can participate in such counseling having regard to their performance in the NEET test, and their ranking.