The Medical Counselling Committee has released an urgent notice for the institutes participating in the NEET-UG and NEET-PG 2022 Counselling rounds. The notice states that the Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) and Person of Indian Origin (PIO) /Foreign National candidates are eligible to apply only for Non-resident Indian (NRI) seats and not for Indian (All India Quota/ Central/ Deemed Paid/ Indian) seats.
Earlier OCI and PIO candidates were treated equally to the Indians as they had the opportunity to compete for seats in government institutes as well as register for admission rounds for the all-Indian quota in medical colleges. But from this year, in case of technical education OCI and PIO students will be treated at par with the foreign nationals who will be allotted supernumerary seats and will need to pay higher fees.
The notice released on Thursday states that this information is with respect to “Gazette Notification of Ministry of Home Affairs Gazette Notification No. S.O.1050 (E) dated 04/03/2021”. “(4) Parity with Non-Resident Indians in the matter of- (ii) appearing for the all India entrance tests such as National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, Joint Entrance Examination (Mains), Joint Entrance Examination (Advanced) or such other tests to make them eligible for admission only against any Non-Resident Indian seat or any supernumerary seat: Provided that the OCI cardholder shall not be eligible for admission against any seat reserved exclusively for Indian citizens.”
The notice further adds that “Deemed Universities/ Institutes where NRI seats are available should verify only citizenship card for OCI/ PIO/ Foreign National candidates at the time of reporting and no other NRI documents which are asked & verified for NRI Sponsored Candidates. Also, the Nationality of all candidates should be checked along with other documents.”