Explaining the situation, he said that his department had had four rounds of talks with the owners of eight deemed universities in the State to spare at least 27 per cent of seats for students under the government quota but they bluntly rejected the government plea citing a Supreme Court ruling  which said that the government has no role in admissions of students in deemed university colleges.

The State Law Ministry has clarified that deemed universities do not come under the purview of the Government, and [that they] were empowered to fill all their seats by themselves. Following this, the Government has proposed to amend the existing law in the State to direct deemed medical universities to provide admission to students under the government quota.

Elaborating on the proposed amended law he said that the Government has decided to ask colleges that they leave at least 27 per cent of the seats to be filled by the State. The Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMED-K) has provided 42 per cent seats and minority institutions have reserved 27 per cent seats in their medical colleges for the Government to fill, Mr. Gowda said.

The University Grants Commission has granted deemed university status to Kolar-based Sri Devaraj Urs Medical College, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, KLE University, Belgaum, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University, and five other colleges in the State.

Mr. Gowda said that private medical colleges have agreed to reserve four per cent of seats for physically challenged students and three per cent for NCC students. A total of 40 and 10 medical seats are available for the physically challenged and NCC students. Counselling for medical students would start from June 3, he said.

Meanwhile, Manipal University, it turns out, will be the only deemed university in the State to allot seats to the Government in Kasturba Medical Colleges in Mangalore and Manipal for the CET to fill up.

Manipal University's Pro Chancellor H.S. Ballal reportedly told The Hindu that Manipal University will allot 54 seats in its medical college at Mangalore and 24 seats in Manipal.

Meanwhile, sources in CET Cell said that the number of medical seats available under government quota could come down by around 80 this year. Last year, Yenepoya Medical College and K.S. Hegde Medical Academy among the deemed universities had allotted medical seats to be filled by CET. “If they are among the list of deemed universities refusing to allot medical seats to the Government, we will have fewer seats,” the sources added.