Calcutta, May 18: After the crisis over the NRI quota in medical colleges, another storm looms over the state government.

Calcutta High Court has directed the government to admit 10 Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe petitioners into the 2005-2006 course at the SSKM and Midnapore medical colleges.

The crisis is likely to deepen as 37 others, who also passed the 2003 joint entrance examination, have moved similar petitions in the high court. According to court sources, their plea would be heard soon.

“The medical education department of the government is hereby directed to admit the petitioner students in the medical courses of 2005-2006 at SSKM and Midnapore medical colleges,” Justice Soumitra Sen said today.

The government was earlier caught in a legal battle over the admission of students from the NRI quota into the two colleges.

Angshuman Das, Devaditya Burman and eight others had cleared the joint entrance examination in 2003. “But these SC and ST candidates were denied admission in the 2004-2005 session. According to the Supreme Court ruling, there should be a quota for SC and ST candidates at the two new medical colleges. But the government flouted it,” a lawyer representing the petitioners argued.

Fifty-six SC and ST candidates, successful in the 2004 joint entrance examination, were admitted to the course. The Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government now has to make space for 10 more.

The lawyer representing the government said he would move a higher bench against Justice Sen’s order.

In 2003, the state government had decided to admit NRI students for an enhanced fee of Rs 9 lakh. The government held admission tests and selected 99 candidates from the NRI quota for the 2004-2005 MBBS course.

However, acting on a petition moved by successful candidates of the 2003 joint entrance examination, Justice Indira Banerjee, on September 29, 2004, cancelled the 99 students’ admission and asked the government to admit the petitioners in their places.

The state moved an appeal before the Supreme Court against the order and after a long battle, the apex court allowed the government to admit 30 students from the NRI quota in the two new medical colleges.

Later, the Supreme Court, in an interim order, allowed the rest of the NRI-quota students, too, to study in the state’s medical colleges. The court said this was a special gesture and could not be a precedent for future admissions.

The All India Medical Council had objected to the state’s decision to admit students from the NRI quota to SSKM and Midnapore colleges.

The council had earlier also refused to allow the government to set up the two new medical colleges in the state. The government had to fight a legal battle to start medical courses in these institutions.