NMC relief to 140 MBBS students whose admissions were invalidated

Mumbai: In a major relief to 140 MBBS students from Maharashtra, who were facing cancellation of their admissions due to institute-level counselling, the new list of eligible MBBS candidates released by the National Medical Commission (NMC) now includes their names.

Releasing the details of around 1.05 lakh students who were admitted for the MBBS course during this academic year i.e. for the 2023-2024 academic session, NMC mentioned that these students "shall be eligible for registration to practice modern medicine/allopathy in India provided they fulfil all other criteria as per rules and regulations."

The admission of these concerned students was invalidated by the Commission in October this year since these students had been admitted via institute-level counselling, violating the NMC guidelines.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that with an aim to put an end to the issue of seat blocking in medical colleges, NMC had clarified that the counselling agencies in the State and the Centre would fill up the seats in all the medical institutes through online counselling.

Clarifying that the mode of counselling will be online even for the stray vacancy round in Private Medical Colleges from this academic year, the NMC PG Board had further mentioned that no college/institute should conduct the counselling, including the stray vacancy round, in physical mode.

Despite such a direction issued by the Apex Medical Regulator, the Maharashtra State CET Cell on September 26, 2023, issued a notice to conduct the stray vacancy Round-2 and fill up the seats at Institute-level.

"The seats remaining vacant in Government/Govt. aided/Corporation Medical Colleges will be filled by Online Stray Vacancy round(s) as per the schedule given in Table 1, Whereas the seat remaining vacant in Private unaided Medical Colleges will be filled at Institute level as per the schedule given in Table 2," the CET cell mentioned in the notice.

Announcing its decision to hold an institute-level stray vacancy round, the CET Cell had directed the eligible desirous candidates to apply via Online mode i.e. through email only to the respective colleges in the prescribed format separately for State Quota and Institutional Quota. Along with the notice, the official email IDs of the concerned colleges were also included.

Referring to the stray vacancy round conducted in the private medical colleges at the institute-level, NMC mentioned that the counselling was conducted in "clear violation" of the Commission's directive in July disallowing institute-level MBBS admissions. Therefore, the Commission clarified that the admissions granted in such a manner will be considered invalid.

In this regard, NMC's official notification dated October 18 mentioned, "It is informed that the notice issued by the CET cell has been found to be issued in clear violation of the NMC’s earlier notice." Due to this, the admission of 141 students who were admitted in this round became invalid.

Also Read: Bombay HC upholds NMC's stand on institute-level counselling, denies relief to 2 MBBS aspirants

This directive by the Apex Medical Commission cancelling the 141 admissions in the stray vacancy round was challenged by two of the students. While considering the matter, the Nagpur bench of Bombay HC had earlier issued an interim order and clarified that the admissions of the petitioners should not be disturbed.

However, in its final order, the Bombay High Court bench upheld the NMC's stand and denied relief to two of the 141 MBBS aspirants who were admitted for the course at the institute-level counselling, violating the NMC norms. Therefore, the fate of these MBBS students remained in jeopardy and raising the issue the medical education department of Maharashtra wrote to the NMC requesting the Commission to regularise the 140 admissions.

As per the latest media report by the Times of India, the new list of eligible MBBS students released by NMC includes the names of these 140 students as well. Commenting on the matter, a parent, who child was facing the issue, told the Daily, "The October 18 notification came at a time when my son was already admitted and was attending classes. There was no update from the state's directorate of medical education and research (DMER) or the NMC after the October 18 notification. This eligibility list has come as a major relief to us."

A similar opinion has been expressed by another parent also who mentioned that the inclusion of their child's name in the eligibility list is assuring. TOI adds that the officials from the State's CET Cell, which had conducted the admissions in the stray vacancy round on the direction of the medical education department, also confirmed that the new eligibility list includes the names of these students. 

Recently, NMC released a notice and asked the students, who were admitted to MBBS course in the academic year 2023-2024 and whose details are not reflected in the list, to contact the Directorate of Medical Education/ Counselling Authority urgently. NMC issued this notice after noting that the details of only 1,04,891 students admitted in this academic year have been uploaded on the portal and some of the colleges did not upload the same.

The Commission clarified that only the students whose details have been uploaded on the portal shall be eligible for registration to practice Modern Medicine/ Allopathy in India provided they fulfil all other criteria as per rules and regulations.

Also Read: MBBS Admissions 2023: Details of only 1,04,891 MBBS students uploaded, NMC asks students to move DME whose details not reflected on portal