OCI cardholders eligible to apply for medical, engineering seats, Karnataka govt tells HC
Bengaluru: The Karnataka government clarified before the High Court that all students having Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) cards can be considered for admission to medical, dental and engineering course in government and private colleges at undergraduate level for 2024-25.
The advocate appearing for the government made the submission before the High Court bench while hearing a petition filed by Abhidyu Gowda Mandya Chandrashekar, who holds an OCI card and is studying in Mandya in Karnataka from the past over 10 years. The student had filed the petition challenging a clause in a January 2024 notification of the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) with regard to the Common Entrance Test (CET) this year, which stated that government seat eligibility for OCI/PIO (Persons of Indian Origin) candidates would be in accordance with the directions of the government.
Advocate Ajoy Kumar Patil, who appeared for the petitioner, arguing that the clause was contrary to the law laid down by the High Court and the Supreme Court, pointed out that a Division Bench of the High Court had stated in 2020 that OCI students should be treated on par with Indian citizens, abiding by the then notifications issued by the Union government under the Citizenship Act.
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Patil also said that the Supreme Court had passed a judgement in 2023 had declared that the March 2021 notification of the Union government under the Citizenship Act that all OCI/PIO students were eligible for admission to professional courses in the country under the NRI category operated prospectively. The Court had also clarified that the notification could not be enforced on OCI cardholders born before March 21, 2021, he pointed out.
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Mamata demands PM's resignation over silence on Pak's 'threat' to strike Kolkata in future conflict
Bethuadahari (WB) (PTI): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday asked why Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not raise Pakistan's threat to attack Kolkata, during his poll rallies in West Bengal a day earlier.
"You (PM) target Bengal during election rallies; but when Pakistan talks of attacking Bengal, you do not utter a word. You should resign," she said at a poll rally here in Nadia district.
"Why did the prime minister not raise the issue during his rally in Bengal? When Pakistan's defence minister says they will attack Kolkata, why didn't the prime minister say that 'we will take strong action'?" she posed a day after Modi addressed a poll rally in West Bengal's Cooch Behar.
"Just like we do not accept any threat to the country, we will also not take the threat to Kolkata lying down," she said.
Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Saturday warned India that it would respond with a strike in Kolkata to any “future misadventures". “If India tries to stage any false flag operation this time, then God-willingly, we will take it to Kolkata," Asif had said while talking to reporters at his hometown of Sialkot.
