HC comes to rescue of medical college denied NMC renewal, directs relief for 150 MBBS seats for this year

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has recently provided interim relief to a Jabalpur based medical college that was denied National Medical Commission's (NMC) permission for renewal of 150 MBBS seats for the academic year 2022-2023.

The college has now been allowed to participate in the ongoing counselling process as the HC bench comprising Justice Vikas Mahajan noted that the Apex medical commission had rejected the college's application only on the basis of the fact that only one delivery had been conducted at the college at the time of first inspection. 

While the Commission had objection regarding the number of deliveries at the medical college, the Court noted that there is no norm or requirement under any statutory regulations providing for minimum number of deliveries.

Therefore, the Court has allowed interim relief to the college and asked NMC to submit its affidavit within four weeks. The matter has been listed for further hearing on January 23, 2023.

Also Read: Delhi HC upholds NMC Regulations, refuses to Cap Attempts Of MBBS Prof Exams

The High Court bench was considering a plea by Jabalpur based Sukh Sagar Medical College and Hospital. The college had challenged the National Medical Commission (NMC) order dated 28.10.2022, by which the application of the college for renewal of permission for the 2nd Batch for 150 MBBS seats for the academic year 2022-2023 was rejected.

Rejection for renewal had come from the NMC as the top medical commission had referred to several deficiencies in the medical college including deficiencies in the teaching faculty, resident doctors, bed occupancy etc. Issuing a show-cause notice to the college in this regard, the Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB) of NMC on 11.10.2022 had mentioned, "The Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB) has conducted an assessment of the college on 5th & 6th September, 2022. As per the assessor report, there has been deficiency of Teaching faculty (5%), deficiency of Resident doctors (2%), Bed occupancy was (61%) and only 1 delivery (including normal and LSCS on the day of assessment."

However the college claimed that the NMC rejected its application in an arbitrary manner as there was no application of mind. Approaching the High Court bench the college sought relief and the counsel for the petitioner submitted that the show-cause notice had been issued because of four deficiencies which were virtually non-existent.

In support of his submissions, the college's counsel had referred to the proceedings of the Lok Sabha, where the Government had clarified about its stand on the steps being taken to increase MBBS seats. It was submitted that while responding to the question if the Government was planning to increase the MBBS and PG seats in equal numbers in Medical Colleges in the country, the former Health Minister had stated that the Central Government had taken several steps to increase the number of MBBS and PG seats in the country, including relaxation of norms for setting up of medical colleges in terms of requirement for faculty, staff, bed strength and other infrastructure.

Referring to this, the counsel for the college submitted that NMC's decision of rejecting the college's application was contrary to the efforts being made by the Government for setting up more medical colleges after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Further, the college's counsel also referred to the NMC notice dated 06.09.2022 where the Commission had allowed to grant renewal of permission only on the basis of sworn affidavits for the academic year 2022-2023. In the concerned order, NMC stated, "As the counselling of NEET (UG) is going to start in the month of September/October 2022, there are colleges where we are waiting for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th renewals, for all of them, it has been decided to give/allow of renewal of permission on the basis of sworn affidavit for the academic year 2022-23. However, random surprise inspections may be carried out on the basis of the track record of the medical colleges for the Academic Year 202-2023 and on the basis of the inspection reports decision will be taken."

In this regard, the Commission argued that despite such an order, in the case of the petitioner college, NMC conducted two random surprise inspections contrary to the policy decisions based on the previous track record of the medical colleges. 

Referring to first Assessment Report dated 06.09.2022, the college's counsel claimed that the "Summary of Assessment‟ records marked the deficiencies as "Nil" since the deficiencies were within the relaxable limit. 

The college's counsel further previous judgment of the Coordinate bench of the Delhi HC in the case of Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan Medical College & Hospital Vs. Union of India, where the HC had directed the NMC to state in an affidavit about its relation to the permissibility of relaxation of 5% shortage. Responding to the Court's order, NMC had mentioned in an affidavit that relaxation of up to 5% on faculty strength is applicable for the college.

Referring to this, the counsel for the college contended that the relaxation of upto 5% on faculty strength is permissible and the same is not to be treated as any deficiency. Further referring to another objection that the college only had one delivery case on the day of assessment, the counsel for the college argued that there was no norm or requirement for providing minimum number of deliveries.

In order to support his argument, the college's counsel referred to the Supreme Court order in the case of Rajiv Memorial Academic Welfare Society Vs. Union of India and Anr. where the top court bench had held that lesser deliveries in a day cannot be treated as a deficiency.

The counsel for the college also submitted that another inspection was also carried out by the NMC on 19.10.2022 and the second Report of the Assessors reflected that the strength of the faculty had improved at the stage of second inspection and no deficiency was observed by the Assessors on this count.

On the other hand, the counsel for the NMC has submitted that the only surviving objection against the college was that at the time of first inspection on September 6, 2022, there was only one delivery. Further, at the time of second inspection on September 19, 2022, no case of delivery was reported. At this outset, the NMC counsel submitted that only five deliveries took place at the Hospital between September 1, 2022 to October 26, 2022.

When the court asked about the norms and requirements in this regard, the NMC counsel submitted that there s no statutory norm prescribed for minimum number of deliveries for grant of renewal of permission for admission.

Taking note of the submissions, the court opined that the college's counsel made a prima facie case arguing that the show-cause notice had been issued on the basis of a non-existent ground i.e. only one delivery had been conducted at the college.

Allowing interim relief to the college, the court observed,

"The grounds on which the rejection of application for renewal of permission is premised viz. one delivery (including normal and LSCs were performed on the date of assessment) is also misconceived as there is no norm or requirement under any statutory regulations providing for minimum number of deliveries. It is not in dispute that all other deficiencies pointed out in the show-cause notice are within the relaxable limit. This being the position, I am of the view that the petitioners have made out a strong prima facie case for grant of ad interim relief."

Taking note of the fact that the counselling process was already under process and the mop up round for the State Counselling, the Court noted,

"Therefore, there is an urgency involved. If despite having a prima facie case the petitioner is deprived of medical student for the current academic year, not only the petitioner but the interest of the public at large will suffer. Upon a finding of the prima facie case in favour of the petitioner, an interim order otherwise ought to follow. The balance of convenience is also in favour of the petitioner."

Granting interim relief to the college, the court permitted it to participate in the ongoing counselling process and mentioned in the order,

"In view of the above, the petitioner/college, by way of this ad interim order, is permitted to participate in the on-going counselling process for the year 2022-23 and the respondents are accordingly directed to include the name of the petitioner/college with 150 MBBS admissions in the total seat matrix for the remaining counselling for the present academic session 2022-23."

"It is made clear that this ad interim order in favour of the petitioner/college and hospital is subject to outcome of the writ petition and the parties are directed to inform the prospective candidates accordingly," clarified the Court.

Directing to file the counter affidavit within four weeks, the Court has listed the matter for further hearing on January 23, 2023.

The Director of Medical Education Madya Pradesh (MP DME) has also issued a notice in this regard and released the fee structure for this year's admissions.

To read the order, click on the link below:

https://medicaldialogues.in/pdf_upload/delhi-hc-minimum-delivery-193128.pdf

Also Read: HC slams NMC for wrongly denying increase of MBBS seats on basis of false and erroneous facts, orders probe