Illegal MBBS admissions: HC notice to Govt, NMC, KEA, GR medical college, RGUHS after students seek transfer, permission to appear in exams

Bengaluru: After the National Medical Commission (NMC) declared the admission of 150 MBBS students of GR Medical College, Mangaluru as "illegal and arbitrary", the medicos belonging to the institute have now approached the Karnataka High Court bench seeking permission to appear in the examination.

The plea, which was filed by 99 students of the institute, further sought the transfer of these students to any government medical college to be able to continue their studies.

Admitting the plea, the Karnataka High Court bench comprising Justice G Narendar and Justice Vijayakumar A Patil has issued notice to the State Government, the Union Government, and Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences.

Further, notice has also been issued to the National Medical Commission (NMC), Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB), Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA), and GR Medical College. The matter has been listed for further hearing on September 20, 2023.

The plea before the HC bench has been filed after the Apex Medical Education Regulatory Body i.e. NMC declared the admission of 150 MBBS students of the 2022-2023 batch belonging to the GR Medical College, Mangaluru, as "illegal and arbitrary".

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that writing to the Health and Family Welfare Department, the Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB) of NMC informed that the college was granted permission for the establishment in 2021-2022 with an annual intake of 150 MBBS seats. However, the Commission reportedly disapproved the proposal seeking permission for a second batch during the academic year 2022-2023.

As per the communication from NMC, the disapproval was issued on the basis of the assessment of the college by MARB on September 5 and September 6, 2022. However, despite the NMC disapproval, the college allegedly admitted students.

Also Read: NMC declares MBBS admissions of 150 Mangaluru Medical College students as illegal

Referring to this, NMC mentioned in the letter, "However, the college illegally and arbitrarily admitted 150 MBBS students for 2022-23 without valid permission."

As per the latest media report by Deccan Herald, a total number of 99 students have now approached the Karnataka High Court and filed a plea. They have sought direction for the issuance of registration numbers to appear in the examination scheduled from October 31, 2023. Further, they have also sought transfer to any government medical college to be able to continue their studies.

It has been stated by the petitioner students that they were allotted seats in the second mop-up round for the academic year 2022-2023 and since GR Medical College was in the seat matrix, they believed that the college had all the required approvals from the NMC. 

The petitioners submitted that it was after the admission that they got to know about the disapproval from Apex Medical Body to admit 150 students. This was on the basis of the assessment made by the Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB). Further, the petitioners claimed that they were kept in the dark about the stoppage of admission for the academic year 2022-2023.

In this regard, the plea stated, "Since the NMC inspection report has exposed that the GR Medical College does not have the requisite faculty, clinical material and infrastructure, mandated by the NMC, the said medical college is not legally entitled to impart medical education. In view of this the petitioners need to be transferred to colleges where they can be given the necessary training required to be given as per the NMC Regulations."

Further, the petitioners referred to the fact that Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA), a State Government entity had given them admission in the concerned medical college. Referring to this, they argued that it is the sole responsibility of the State Government to transfer them to a government medical college to continue their medical education. 

Therefore, referring to the imminent closure of GR Medical College in view of the direction for stopping admission for the academic year 2023-2024, the petitioners prayed to the Court to interfere in the matter and issue suitable directions to the State Government to protect their interest.

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