Chennai: While considering a plea concerning PG medical admission scam in Tamil Nadu, where merit had been ignored while admitting students in 90 PG medical seats in 13 private medical colleges of the State, the Madras High Court sought to know from the State why a CBI inquiry should not be initiated in the matter.
The plea had been moved by the former secretary of Tamil Nadu Selection Committee of DME, challenging the earlier HC order directing to register FIR against him for allegedly being involved in the scam. However, dismissing the plea, the HC division bench comprising of Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy also directed the Government pleader to inform what action has been taken against the appellant pursuant to the order of the single judge around two months ago.
"It is as to whether an FIR pursuant to the direction of the learned Single Judge has been registered or not and whether the Chief Secretary has taken action to initiate the inquiry against the appellant," the bench asked the State.
The bench also directed the counsel for the Government "to clarify the circumstances in which a government order was issued to ratify the period of two months when order for extension of service of the writ appellant was not existing. He was yet discharging the duties during the intervening period of two months."
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported about the matter where the Madras High Court had ordered a CB-CID inquiry to probe the PG medical admission scam in 13 private medical colleges of the State. The inquiry revealed that the former Tamil Nadu Secretary, Selection Committee, Directorate of Medical Education was involved in illegally permitting those medical colleges for filling up 90 PG medical seats without caring for the merit criteria for 2020-2021.
The list of private medical institutes which were alleged to be involved in the scam includes PSG Institute of Medical Science and Research, Coimbatore, and Karpaga Vinayakka Medical College, Chengalpet.
The matter concerns three different petitions filed by M Keethanjali, M S Santhosh, and Santhosh Kumar, all of whom are seeking instruction from the authorities to fill PG medical seats that have been declared vacant as per the selection committee's seat matrix dated August 17, 2020. In their petition, the petitioners sought admission of eligible candidates only by conducting mop up counselling for management seats and by considering their NEET-PG rank.
On October 28, 2020, Justice N. Anand Venkatesh suspected flouting of norms in the admission process and ordered a CB-CID investigation into the matter. Following that, the police officials proceeded to file periodic status reports on the investigation's progress. Dr Selvarajan was named Secretary of the Selection Committee on March 4, 2016 and was set to retire on July 31, 2019, according to the investigation reports. He was re-employed in the same position for 19 months, from July 31, 2019 to February 26, 2021, and had served without legitimate orders from January 1 to February 26, 2021.
However, the CB-CID inquiry revealed that despite the fact that two merit lists were posted on the selection committee's website, they did not include the contact information for the candidates on the list, which allowed private colleges to make their own admissions on August 31, 2020 under the guise that the seats would otherwise be wasted.
The Selection Committee did not verify their rank in the merit list when issuing provisional allotment orders to 90 candidates admitted by the 13 colleges on their own later, despite having the power to withhold provisional allotment orders to undeserving candidates, stated the inquiry reports.
Taking note of this, the Madras HC bench had ordered to register FIRs against the officials involved and private colleges concerned. The court had also ordered the state not to pay pension benefits to him and to pay a compensation of Rs 4 Lakh to each of the two candidates who lost the chance to get admitted in their preferred PG courses due to the unethical admission process. The single judge had also directed to recover this amount from the retirement benefits of the former secretary of the Selection Committee. Besides, the court had also denied retirement benefits to the doctor.
"If this Court does not step in to take action in accordance with law, the faith that has been reposed on this Court by the public would have a whirlwind downfall. Therefore, on a consideration of the entire materials placed before this Court in the form of enquiry reports and material documents, it clearly transpires that the then Secretary, Selection Committee, Directorate of Medical Education, has not only been instrumental in depriving the meritorious candidates of their rightful seats under the management quota in the private medical colleges, which are under the scanner of the enquiry officer, by not following the mandate of the Medical Council of India and the orders of the Hon'ble Supreme Court, but even on a holistic consideration of the case, this Court is of the view that the nexus does not start or end with him," Justice M Dhandapani had mentioned in the order.
"The tentacles of illegality are cast far and wide as the perpetrator of the crime could not be an isolated individual in the form of the then Secretary, but the said officer would definitely had been aided by other persons in stage-managing the aforesaid act, which has deprived the meritorious candidates of their right to seats of their choice under the management quota, reports PTI. The amount of Rs 8 lakh shall be initially paid by the government within four weeks to the two petitioners and later recovered from the retirement benefits of the doctor," the judge had added.
However, challenging the single judge order dated February 25, the former secretary of the Selection Committee Dr. G Selvarajan approached the High Court.
As per the latest media report by Live Law, appealing before the division bench of the High Court, the appellant submitted that while considering the matter earlier the single judge had ordered a CBCID inquiry and directed the authorities to file reports in sealed covers. It was the contention of the petitioner's counsel that the order of the single judge was taken on the basis of the reports in sealed covers and the court had not even made Dr Selvarajan a party in the proceedings. In fact, the doctor did not even receive a copy of the reports and he did not even get a chance to defend himself.
The counsel for the petitioner also argued that the single judge's orders had enlarged the scope of the petition and the judge had even issued directions only on the sole basis of the CBCID reports without considering the procedure, prospectus, MCI Regulation 2000 and the disruption of the timeline caused in admissions due to covid.
However, after taking note of the submissions by the petitioner, the HC division bench questioned, "Learned State Government Pleader is directed to clarify the circumstances in which a government order was issued to ratify the period of two months when order for extension of service of the writ appellant was not existing. He was yet discharging the duties during the intervening period of two months."
"Learned State Government Pleader is further directed to inform as to what action has been taken pursuant to the judgment dated 25.2.2022, as a period of two months is going to pass now. It is as to whether an FIR pursuant to the direction of the learned Single Judge has been registered or not and whether the Chief Secretary has taken action to initiate the inquiry against the appellant," the bench questioned.
"Further, the parties to the petition are directed to seek instructions as to why the matter should not be referred to the Central Bureau of Investigation," inquired the bench.
The matter has been listed for further hearing on 21.04.2022.
To read the court order, click on the link below.
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