Jammu: The Jammu and Kashmir Board of Professional Entrance Examinations (BOPEE) has said it cannot conduct fresh counselling for MBBS admissions and that the allocation of supernumerary seats to candidates who were earlier admitted to the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Institute of Medical Excellence should be decided at the government level.
The clarification by the Jammu and Kashmir BOPEE came in a letter to the Union Territory's Health and Medical Education Department, which sought its intervention in the relocation of 50 MBBS students of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Institute of Medical Excellence (SMVDIME).
Earlier this month, the National Medical Commission's Medical Assessment and Rating Board withdrew the letter of permission granted to SMVDIME for non-compliance with minimum standards. It had said that those admitted to the college during the counselling shall be accommodated in other institutions in Jammu and Kashmir as supernumerary seats.
Sangharsh Samiti, a recently formed conglomerate of right-wing organisations backed by the BJP, has been spearheading an agitation in Jammu since November last year, demanding cancellation of admissions to the college and seeking reservation of seats exclusively for students professing faith in Mata Vaishno Devi.
In its letter, the BOPEE said, "I am directed to submit that the matter was placed before the Board for detailed deliberations and the Board has observed that it is constrained to conduct any new counselling for the year 2025-26 as it is not mandated go beyond the counselling schedule issued by Medical Counselling Committee (MCC), MoHFW, New Delhi for currert academic session." It said that under the directions of MCC, data of 1,410 MBBS candidates, including 50 candidates of SMVDIME under question, has been updated on their portal on the last date of joining on December 31, 2025.
"Further, the creation and allotment of supernumerary seats does not fall within the ambit of J-K BOPEE." Therefore, the fresh allocation of supernumerary seats to these candidates who were earlier allotted seats in the SMVDIME should be made at the government level in consultation with the National Medical Commission and respective medical colleges in Jammu and Kashmir, the letter said.
Among the inaugural batch of 50 students at the SMVDIME, 42 were Muslims -- mostly from Kashmir -- along with seven Hindu students from Jammu and one Sikh candidate, a composition that triggered demands for scrapping the admissions and reserving all seats for Hindu students.
Earlier, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah asserted that the education of these 50 students will not be allowed to suffer, and his government will accommodate them in other institutions through supernumerary seats.
"It is our legal responsibility to accommodate them. We will adjust them by creating supernumerary seats in colleges close to their homes so that their education does not suffer," he had said.
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