The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that candidates have no vested automatic right to admissions under the NRI quota for undergraduate and postgraduate medical/dental courses in private colleges as it is the discretion of the managements to confer such benefit.

However, a bench of Justices L. Nageswara Rao and S. Ravindra Bhat directed Mahatma Gandhi University of Medical Sciences, Rajasthan, to conduct a special counselling session for a group of doctors seeking admission under the NRI quota in postgraduate seats, since the special quota was abruptly withdrawn by the private colleges after inviting aspirants for the admission process.

The court said that the NRI aspirants should be admitted solely on the basis of merit.