New Delhi: The Supreme Court in early February declared that Centre’s March 2021 decision, stating Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) appearing for entrance tests to medical courses could not compete for seats reserved for Indian citizens would be applied with prospective effect only.

A bench of Justices A.S. Bopanna and C.T. Ravikumar said: “The notification suffers from the vice of non-application of mind and despite being prospective, is in fact ‘retroactive’ taking away the rights which were conferred also as a matter of policy of the sovereign state.”

It further added, “the notification being sustainable prospectively, we hereby declare that the impugned portion of the notification which provides for supersession of the notifications dated 11.04.2005, 05.01.2007, and 05.01.2009 and the clause 4(ii), its proviso and Explanation (1) thereto shall operate prospectively in respect of OCI cardholders who have secured the same subsequent to 04.03.2021”.