OCI cardholder gets HC nod to appear for JEE counselling under general category

As per the Ministry of Home Affairs notification, Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cardholders can lay claim to only NRI quota seats in educational institutions based on all-India entrance tests such as NEET and JEE.  

In an interim order, the Bombay High Court has permitted a student, who holds an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card, to participate in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) counselling for seeking admissions to Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) under the general category and not the one reserved for NRIs or foreign nationals. 

A bench passed the interim order while hearing a plea filed by the female student challenging a part of the notification issued on March 4 this year by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). 
As per the MHA notification, OCI cardholders can lay claim to only Non-Resident Indian (NRI) quota seats in educational institutions based on all-India entrance tests such as National Eligibility-cum- Entrance Test (NEET) and JEE, among others. JEE and NEET are engineering and medical entrance exams, respectively. 

Counsel Vineet Naik, who appeared for the petitioner argued that while the petitioner student held an OCI card, she was not an NRI and had completed her Classes X and XII from India. Naik said she was therefore, seeking admission to one of the IITs under the general category for the current academic year. 
The advocate argued that students such as the petitioner should be treated as general category candidate and not as foreign national candidate. If they are considered as general category candidates, they will be entitled for consideration of larger pool of seats and courses – approximately 16,000 – as opposed to 1,600 supernumerary seats created for foreign nationals, he told the court.  

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