Seat Blocking Scam in Telangana: HC directs KNRUHS, NMC to transfer eligible candidate's seat from MNR to Mediciti

Hyderabad: The High Court of Telangana on Thursday slammed the authorities of Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS) for encouraging a multi-crore postgraduate medical seat-blocking scam and further observed it to be only the tip of the iceberg.

Such observations came from the HC bench comprising of Justices Abhinand Kumar Shavili and Namavarapu Rajeswara Rao while considering the case of a PG medical aspirant who lost her opportunity of getting admitted to her preferred course of PG dermatology because her seat had already been allotted to another student, allegedly as a part of the scam.

Providing relief to the student, the HC has now directed the KNRUHS and National Medical Commission (NMC) to transfer the concerned PG medical aspirant, who is the petitioner before the HC bench, from MNR Medical College to Mediciti Institute of Medical Sciences.

The petitioner PG medical aspirant, Dr. Ganta Satvika Reddy completed her MBBS from Osmania Medical College back in 2019 and thereafter she appeared in NEET-PG examination in 2021-2022. After securing 25,948 rank, she had opted for MD Dermatology seat at Medicity Medical College in Hyderabad as her Preference 4. MNR Medical College was at Preference No 5 for the petitioner student.

Also Read: PG Medical Seat Blocking Scam in Telangana: Governor seeks report from KNRUHS

As per the latest media report by Deccan Chronicle, in her plea, the petitioner student claimed that the Health University had refused allowing her to participate in the stray vacancy counselling on April 30 as a part of the seat blocking scam. The counsel for the petitioner claimed that even though Mediciti Instititute was her fourth preference, the concerned seat was allotted to Dr. Kandakatla Mounika.

The daily adds that Dr Mounika had already been allotted a seat in MS Ophthalmology in Mamatha Medical College, Khammam in the second round of counselling under the competent authority quota. Referring to this, the counsel for the petitioner argued that the concerned Dr. Mounika could not participate in the additional mop up phase counselling without availing free exit before the prescribed time.

The latest media report by the Times of India adds that the through the seat blocking scam, some students who had already secured seats under the MQ-I and convenor quotas, were allowed to take part in the following rounds of counselling in an illegal way. As a result, deserving candidates lose their chances. Later, those students blocking the seats would not join the concerned courses and those seats would be sold by the managements of private medical colleges between Rs 2 crore and Rs 3 crore. Previously, the aggrieved students had demanded CBI probe for investigating such allegations of seat-blocking 'because they are not stray incidents and are in fact part of a huge scam'.

In this case, the bench on May 5 had issued an interim order of status quo. Following this, the Court perused the record and examined the issue to find out shocking details. It was also noted by the bench that the concerned student who had already joined a PG seat at Mamatha Medical College could not participate in the subsequent rounds of counselling without the nod from the University. However, the bench noted that the system called the free exit had not been followed in this case.

When the court sought explanation from the University in this regard, the authorities reportedly apologized to the court through the special counsel for the State, Sanjeev Kumar. The authorities assured the court about punishing the responsible person. 

Taking note of the same, the bench directed the University and NMC to allot the petitioner a PG dermatology seat in MediCiti institute.

Also Read: Telangana Seat Blocking Scam: Private medical colleges booked, KNRUHS increases Exit Fee