Karnataka-born Supreme Court judge, Justice S. Abdul Nazeer, on Thursday spoke in open court of the influence wielded by the “education mafia” in the State in admissions to professional courses like medicine.
Justice Nazeer said it is a ‘syndicate’ which virtually auctions NRI seats.
The clout of the mafia saw people with loads of money but little merit get admission.
The judge made the oral remarks while hearing a plea filed by the Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) cardholders challenging a Home Ministry notification of March which treated them on par with NRIs for NEET-UG exams.
In the hearing, one of the lawyers submitted that the NRI seats came at a heavy price.
“It used to cost ₹2 or ₹3 crore,” the lawyer said.
Justice Nazeer intervened and said it used to cost much more than that in Karnataka.
“They [the mafia] virtually auctioned NRI seats. I know from my experiences as a lawyer. There is a syndicate there. It is called the education mafia... And Karnataka has the largest number of seats for medicine,” Justice Nazeer said.
The NEET system was brought in to effectively put the brakes on the education mafia.
