Admission denial to BDS candidate: HC directs TN Health, Selection Committee, Dental college to pay Rs 5 lakh compensation

Chennai: The Madras High Court has awarded a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to a SC woman candidate, who was denied admission in a private dental college in Tiruchengode in Namakkal district in 2014 due to the inaction on the part of the authorities concerned.

Justice S M Subramaniam held the then secretaries of the Tamil Nadu Health department, the Selection Committee and the KSR Dental College responsible for the denial of admission in BDS course to A Jayaranjani and directed them to pay the compensation within four weeks.

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Proportioning the compensation amount, the judge said the secretaries of health and the selection panel should jointly pay Rs 3 lakh and the college Rs 2 lakh to the petitioner.

The judge was allowing a writ petition from the girl recently.

According to the petitioner, she belongs to the Scheduled Caste community and her father passed away in 2011 and her mother, a widow, is supporting the family. She had secured 1,063 marks in the higher secondary public examination conducted in March 2014 and applied for MBBS/BDS course. She was selected and offered admission in BDS and allotted to the KSR Dental College in Tiruchengodu.

The order of allotment was issued by the Selection Committee at 4 PM on September 30, 2014. On account of the late issuance of admission card, the petitioner was unable to reach the college the same, which happened to be the last date for admission.

However, the next morning she, along with her grandfather, reported to the institution but instead of verifying the certificates and admitting her in the course, the college Administrative Officer refused admission.

The petitioner showed the allotment order issued by the Selection Committee and in spite of that, they refused to admit her. Thus, the petitioner is constrained to move the present writ petition for a direction to the college and other authorities to admit her in BDS Course.

The judge noted the result of the Selection Committee was communicated to the dental college through fax message. However, the college denied admission to the petitioner on the very next day. In such circumstances, when the college failed to act upon the allotment order issued by the Selection Committee, the selection panel ought to have initiated action against it by making a complaint to the competent authority.

However, no such action was taken against the college knowingly and therefore, this Court would be able to form an opinion that all the three respondents -- health secretary, selection committee and the college -- have jointly contributed for the denial of right of admission to the petitioner to undergo BDS course.

A perusal of the records reveals the Selection Committee itself has conducted the counselling on the very last day i.e., on September 30 and issued an allotment order at 4 p.m. Thus, the petitioner reported on October 1 at 9 AM.

Therefore, the petitioner has not committed any fault or delay in reporting before the college. It was the mistake committed by the Selection Committee in not conducting the counselling in advance or providing information to the college on the same day to admit the petitioner. It ought to have informed the college not to admit any other students on September 30 in view of the fact that an allotment order was issued in favour of the petitioner, the same day.

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