Karnataka HC slams 2 dental colleges over Speculative litigations for non-admitted BDS aspirants, Each fined Rs 1 Lakh

Bengaluru: Slamming the practice of "Speculative Litigations", the Karnataka High Court bench at Bengaluru recently imposed Rs 2 lakh penalty on two dental colleges of the State for wasting the precious time of the Court as they filed speculative petitions before the Court on behalf of some BDS aspirants who failed to secure admission for the year 2021-2022.

Therefore, the bench comprising of Justice B Veerappa and Justice K.S.Hemalekha has directed those two dental colleges- Venkateshwara Dental College and Hospital and KVG Dental College & Hospital for depositing the amount within one month.

"The costs of `2,00,000/- (Rupees two lakhs) (as stated supra) shall be deposited with the Advocates' Association, Bengaluru, within a period of one month from the date of receipt of certified copy of this Order, failing which the Registry is directed to post the matter before the Court for implementation of the order with regard to payment of costs," read the order.

Those two dental colleges had approached the HC along with several BDS aspirants and claimed that the students could not register with the Karnataka Examination Authority, which handles the registration process, because the website/portal of KEA was not open. As a result, the petitioner students allegedly failed to register in terms of the schedule announced by the Medical Counselling Committee for Mop-up Round 2 counselling for BDS 2021.

It was submitted by the colleges that they had altogether 10 BDS seats (6 seats in one college and 4 in the other) vacant and therefore, the petitioner students had approached KEA and wrote a letter as well seeking permission to complete the registration process. However, KEA did not provide relief to the candidates and as a result, the candidates could not be admitted. Following this, the colleges along with the aspirants approached the HC seeking relief.

On the other hand, KEA contended that the registration process has no relation with individual colleges and as per the rules, the students need to get themselves registered for participating in the counselling process. KEA further provided the details of the registration process and the opening of the registration window and submitted that as per the procedure and rules, the colleges could give admission to only those students whose names were found in the list forwarded by the Karnataka Examination Authority. 

It was submitted that except for one student, the names of the petitioner students were not included in the list forwarded to the colleges and therefore, they were not entitled for being admitted to the course.

Taking note of the submissions and contentions of all the parties, the HC bench referred to the objections filed by KEA and the timeline for opening of the online registration process. 

At this outset, the bench noted,

"The petitioners have not denied the specific averments made at paragraph-4 of the statement of objections specifying the dates on which the online registration process was open for the eligible candidates to register with the Karnataka Examination Authority nor produced any contra documents to the effect that the Karnataka State e-Information Bulletin containing the calendar of events issued is not meant for registration to BDS course for the year 2021."

The bench also rejected the contention of the colleges that they had approached KEA regarding the non-opening of website/portal before the last date fixed by MCC. In this regard, the bench observed,

"...it has to be noted that such permission cannot be granted and it cannot be lost sight that the petitioners No.1- colleges being the Management, are not the aggrieved parties to address letter to the respondent No.3 praying to open the website/portal. It is only the students who can seek such prayer, if they are so aggrieved. Only the students who are qualified in NEET can approach the respondent No.3. The representation made by the college has no consequence."

Further, the court took note of the fact that the entire pleadings was silent about the grievance of the students the address of the petitioner students is shown as the address of the dental college. Referring to this, the bench slammed the colleges and noted,

"We are bowled over as to how the students come under the 'care of' the college of which they are not the students at all. This clearly indicates, only with an intention to fill up the vacant seats, the petitioner No.1-colleges have adopted the indirect method of getting an order from the Court and therefore, have not approached the Court with clean hands."

"If the petitioner-students were really deprived of the seats to which they were eligible, they would have approached the Court, independently, by producing the documents showing the illegality, if any, committed by any of the respondents herein. But that is not the case in the present writ petitions. The colleges cannot step into the shoes of students and file the writ petitions," it added.

Therefore, the court held that a writ of mandamus sought by the dental colleges on the behalf of the students who were not admitted into the college was not maintainable and further opined that these kinds of petitions were responsible for wasting court's time.

"Filing and contesting these types of litigation is nothing but wasting precious public time and that of this Court and is nothing but harassing the respondent-authorities unnecessarily, by driving them to the Court and making them to spend litigation expenses etc., Since the petitioners have not come to the Court with clean hands, they are not entitled to any relief before this Court in exercise of powers under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India," noted the court.

Slamming the colleges, the bench further observed,

"The contention of Sri Krishna, learned counsel for the petitioners that Sri Venkateshwara Dental College and Hospital i.e., petitioner No.1 in W.P.No.12902/2022, the total intake for the academic year 2021 is 40 and the admissions done is 34 and still 6 seats are vacant and that KVG Dental College and Hospital-petitioner No.1 in W.P.No.12946/2022, the total intake for the academic year 2021 is 100 and the admission done is 96 and still 4 seats are vacant, is of no consequence. That is how the colleges have approached the Court to get an order to fill up the vacant post and thus, the exercise of the Colleges is for its personal benefit and not for the benefit of the students. Thereby, the petitioners have not made out any case to grant the relief sought for in the present writ petitions."

Dismissing the pleas, the bench also observed the growing tendency regarding filing speculative litigations and noted,

"It is relevant to state at this stage that, because of petitioners No.1-college the petitioner-students approached the Court believing that they get the relief before this Court and they will get admission in the college. Thereby, the precious time of the petitioner-students has been wasted. So also, the petitioners have wasted the Court time for more than half a day, depriving the other genuine litigants."

"The experience of this Court is that in recent years there has emerged a trend of filing speculative litigations before various Courts of law, not just in the Court of first instance, but also in the High Court as well as before the Hon'ble Supreme Court. It is the duty of the Courts to ensure that such litigations shall be weeded out at the first instance rather than allowing to be festered and thereby coming in the way of genuine litigants seeking justice treating the Court as "Temple of Justice" and to protect precious public & judicial time of the court. Therefore, the petitioners No.1-colleges are liable to pay cost for wasting precious Court time," read the order.

To read the order, click on the link below.

https://medicaldialogues.in/pdf_upload/karnataka-high-court-187538.pdf

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