Madras HC order: 65 PG medicos loose their degrees, 6 medical colleges to pay Rs 30 lakh for faulty admissions

With this, the court upheld the Medical Council of India (MCI) decision wherein the council cancelled the admissions of these medicos keeping in view violation committed by the 6 medical colleges including Arupadai Veedu Medical College, Vinayaga Mission Medical College, Mahatma Gandhi Medical College & Research Centre, Sri Lakhmi Narayana Institute of Medical Science, Sri Manakula Vinayagar Medical College, Sri Venkateswara Medical College and Research Centre, and Pondicherry Institute of Medical Science & Research.

The HC directions came in view of the petition filed by the aggrieved students and medical colleges who challenged the MCI order.

According to recent media accounts, the 65 candidates were admitted to PG Medical (degree and diploma) courses for the academic year 2017-18 through CENTAC in these 6 medical institutions. The MCI had cancelled the said admission of the medical students after noticing that these colleges had given the admissions on their own without the approval of the CENTAC and Puducherry government; the institutions admitted students unilaterally after obtaining cash amounts from them.

During the hearing session, the counsel appearing on behalf of the MCI contended that the candidates' admission was in total violation of regulations and no equity can be claimed by them. All admissions are liable to be terminated.

However, the colleges claimed that the students referred by CENTAC could not be admitted since they failed to pay the fee prescribed or never turned up for admission within the cut-off date.

While, on the other hand, the medico defended their admission. The concerned 65 students submitted that some are even standing as frontline warriors in the fight against COVID-19 and the same should be taken into consideration by the court while deciding the pleas.

But the High Court bench headed by Honourable Justice Anand Venkatesh refused to accept any contentions from the students or the colleges and said,

"the petitioners undertook that they will not claim any equity by virtue of the interim orders passed in their favour. Since the matter involves post-graduate courses, this court is not willing to compromise on merits and get swayed by other considerations."

As quoted by TNIE, the judge observed,

"The respective institutions are liable to pay for the dubious methods adopted by them in filling seats unilaterally at the cost of denying admission to candidates who appeared on the merit list and were allotted seats by the CENTAC."

"Mediocrity should never be encouraged, at least in medical education… It would be better even if some seats go unfilled and wasted rather than filling such seats with unmeritorious candidates." It will lead to compromising the precious lives of the citizens of this country

Then HC then scrapped the admission of the 65 medicos and upheld the MCI order to cancel their admission which was given through illegal methods.

The bench then imposed 5 lakh each as a cost on six medical colleges/universities that had illegally admitted the students in the academic year 2017-18.

TOI reports that the judge did not spare the high court too, and said,

"this court also should take the blame for having taken such a long time to hear these cases and render judgment…. On various occasions, the judiciary had shown misplaced sympathy on unmeritorious candidates through interim orders and that has proven to be counter-productive, more particularly when it comes to medical education"