Panaji: The high court has dismissed a petition filed by a student seeking admission to the first year of the degree course of MBBS at GMC.
She approached the HC after being aggrieved by the stipulations for admission in 2025-26, which restrict the eligibility of candidates in the general category to those who have passed Class XII or equivalent from schools or colleges in Goa, and are the state’s residents.
She stated that she was born to parents originally from Udupi in Karnataka, who in 2004 chose to settle down in Calangute. Both parents are doctors.
The petitioner completed her schooling at Sharada Mandir and then got admitted to a college in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, which runs a residential programme in higher studies.
This was because her brother had secured admission to BITS Hyderabad, and her parents, being professionals, were at times required to travel out of Goa.
She appeared for her Class XII examination in Andhra Pradesh and secured 98.1% marks.
The HC held that there is enough competition among students in Goa who have continued to reside in the state and also took the qualifying examination from an institution in Goa before appearing for NEET-UG and securing a ranking.
“Such candidates form a distinct class from those students who passed the qualifying examination from an institution outside the state of Goa, and, according to us, the classification between the two is reasonable and has a nexus with the object of reserving 85% of seats in govt medical college for those students who are domiciled in the state and also who cleared the qualifying examination from an institute within the state,” the HC said.
It said, “It is also not a case that the petitioner is completely ousted from the competition, as she can still compete in the 15% of seats, which are reserved in the All India quota in the state of Goa, and depending on her merit and standing in the merit list, she may take up a seat in Goa Medical College, which the rules permit,” said the division bench comprising justices Bharati Dangre and Nivedita Mehta.
