HC alters eligibility criteria for MBBS admission in Chandigarh

NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 3: As per the latest High Court of Haryana and Punjab order, the regulations applied for MBBS admission in Government Medical College and Hospital, Chandigarh have been changed. Medical aspirants will now be required to show the domicile as well as need to complete the last three years of study from Chandigarh from 2021 session onwards.

The High Court termed the earlier eligibility criteria which only required students to complete Class 12 from the union territory as ‘arbitrary’. The new regulations state that the students need to complete Classes 10, 11 and 12 from Chandigarh. This criterion will be applied in a staggered manner implying that in 2019 candidates who have completed Class 12 only will be eligible for admission while in 2020, only those candidates who will complete Classes 11 and 12 will become eligible. Further, for the academic session 2021, students will be required to complete Classes 10, 11 and 12.

In addition, candidates are also required to show a residential certificate issued by the Deputy Commissioner stating that the parents of the candidates are residents of the union territory of Chandigarh for at least five years preceding the date of application. Admission seekers whose parents are employees of Central/State government and on deputation to the UT which includes the government employees of Chandigarh or those working in autonomous companies in which the UT administration has more than 20% share at least for three years before the date of application.

As per the earlier regulations, candidates were required to study Class 12 from an Institute located in Chandigarh only. This criterion was contested by petitioners stating the students who are not residents of the state but have completed Class 12 from the union territory are eligible to apply whereas all the other states have strict domicile rules. With these regulations, non-residents of Chandigarh were also benefitted considering they have qualified Class 12 from the union territory.

Currently, these rules will be applicable for admission to MBBS course only as all the citizens of India who have qualified NEET are eligible to apply for BDS. The Governor of Punjab, V P Singh Badnore has granted permission to introduce the rules.