KNRUHS disqualifies 37 MBBS, BDS aspirants over ST reservation

Hyderabad: Acting on communication from the Tribal Welfare Department, the Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS) on Saturday, September 26, disqualified 37 candidates from claiming Scheduled Tribe (ST) reservation benefits in Telangana for MBBS/BDS admissions.

According to a communication from the Tribal Welfare Department, the origin of the candidates has been traced back to Andhra Pradesh, making them ineligible under the Competent Authority Quota.

These candidates will be treated under the Open category and will be allotted seats subject to their merit.

Out of these candidates, nine had already been conditionally allotted MBBS seats in Phase 1 and Phase 2 counselling at various medical colleges. These allotments now stand cancelled.

The vacant seats will now return to the ST quota pool and will be made available for eligible candidates in the third phase/mop-up phase of counselling.

The Tribal Welfare Department, in their order dated September 22, stated that the candidates had migrated from Andhra Pradesh to Telangana before the bifurcation.

However, relying on the Kukatikonda Jyothirmie vs. State of Telangana (2024) order by the High Court, the department said that when a territory is divided due to the reorganisation of states, a migrant is entitled to benefits only in their state of origin, not the state of migration, unless they were an ordinary permanent resident of the Telangana region at the time the original Presidential Orders were enacted.

Essentially, if the roots and family lineage trace back permanently to the Andhra Pradesh region, migrating to Hyderabad/Telangana prior to 2014 for employment or education does not transform Telangana into a “state of origin” for reservation purposes.

It further stated that the ten-year period which allowed shared admission quotas between the two states under Section 95 of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act, 2014, expired on June 1, 2024.

This order follows the one issued on September 3 which declared 13 candidates ineligible for the ST reservation as they had migrated from states such as Karnataka and Maharashtra.