Karnataka High Court on Thursday passed an interim order where it directed the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) to permit Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) students to submit applications for the Common Entrance Test (CET) 2018 for admission to various engineering courses. To this effect, Justice BV Nagarathna passed an interim order following the hearing of a batch of petitions. The petitioners are directed to submit their applications before February 26.
As per the amendment to Section 7A of the Citizenship Act in 2005, Justice B V Nagarathna notes, OCI card holders are on par with Indian citizens and in case of a repugnancy, as per Article 254 of the Constitution, the act passed by Parliament prevails. During the earlier CET era, there were Karnataka and non-Karnataka quota seats and the government allowed students from outside to study here.
The court also cited that the Union Government allowed OCI student to apply for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-2018 and the State Government in fact followed last year’s court order passed by High Court which allowed admission of OCI students to various courses.
