Confusion Over Seat Allocation: First Round of MD, MS Counselling at GMCH 32 Quashed
Chandigarh: Amidst the demands to review the altered policy for seat distribution and the pending litigation before the High Court, the first round of counselling for MD/MS seats at Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32 got quashed only after a day it was held.
The Institute on Thursday quashed the first round of the counselling due to confusion ver seat-allocation and announced to hold fresh counselling on August 18, 2023.
According to media reports, the confusion during the first counselling session on August 16 stemmed over the conversion of economically weaker section (EWS) seats into general category seats.
Issuing an official note, the director-principal of GMCH-32 Dr. Jasbinder Kaur mentioned, “Since there was no applicant for EWS seats in either IP Pool or UT Pool, it was decided to convert the EWS seats into general category seats during the first counselling itself and candidates were provided the option to exercise their choices for these converted seats. However, the converted seats were not integrated into the total general category seat count, leading to misunderstandings among candidates.”
While commenting on the matter, GMCH officials told Hindustan Times, “After completion of counselling, a candidate indicated that there was some confusion among the candidates regarding conversion of EWS seats into general category seats, prompting a detailed discussion. The issue was discussed in detail by the PG Admission Committee and it was realised that these converted seats should have been added in the particular branch of the general category seats for the sake of better clarity. There is a possibility that some of the candidates could not have exercised their available option correctly because of the confusion.”
However, the PG Admission Committee unanimously acknowledged the error and decided to conduct a re-counselling session on August 18 at 11am for giving a fair chance to all the candidates.
Meanwhile, the scrutiny committee considered all the candidates participating in the first round of counselling on August 16 as eligible and strongly advised them for attending the re-counselling session. This has been done to rectify any potential discrepancies that might have arisen due to the earlier confusion and in order to provide every candidate with a just and unbiased chance to secure their preferred seats.
As per the recent media report by Hindustan Times, the first round of counselling was conducted as the Punjab and Haryana High Court granted no immediate stay on the process. Commenting on this, Anil Mehta, the senior standing counsel of the Chandigarh administration informed that the High Court had allowed the counselling process to continue in accordance with the revised process and sequencing, as provided in the prospectus. However, it was further clarified that the counseling will be subject to the final outcome of the court case.
The pending plea before the High Court bench concerns the modified admission process. According to the prospectus, among the total 148 seats, 72 seats are allocated to all-India quota, the remaining 72 (SC:10, General: 62 and EWS: 4) are earmarked for state quota. The State quota seats are further divided into two categories: IP Pool and the UT Chandigarh Pool, both comprising 36+2 (EWS) seats each.
The MBBS graduates of GMCH approached the High Court and alleged that the altered process was unilateral and arbitrary and it will severely impact the possibility of Institutional Preference Pool (IP) pool candidates getting a specialty/discipline of their choice.
Following the complaints of discrimination in seat allocation, the UT Health Secretary on August 4 directed the GMCH for revising the counseling process and sequencing promptly for MD/MS admissions for this year to ensure that the admission process was completely fair and transparent.
As per the order, an IP Pool category candidates should firstly be adjusted against the seats of preferred branch available in the IP Pool. However, if the preferred branch was unavailable, then the candidate can be considered for the branch of preferred choice under UT pool, subject to fulfilling the eligibility criteria of UT pool.
While considering the case, the High Court on August 10 had sought a response from the UT administration within August 16. Last Wednesday, the senior standing counsel for the UT informed the court that under the revised process and sequencing of counselling, the only change made was that IP pool category candidates will firstly be considered against IP Pool seat, if the desired branch was available in IP Pool.
According to the previous rules, the IP Pool candidates were first considered against the UT pool even though the desired branch was unavailable in IP Pool that resulted in injustice with candidates having higher rank at the NEET-PG examination.
The Court was informed that the decision was formally reached by the administration after through examination from every possible perspective, based upon due analysis of the emprical data and other relevant factors.
Meanwhile, Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that after the direction of the UT Health Secretary Yashpal Garg for revising the counselling process and sequencing promptly for MD/MS admissions for this academic year, a delegation of the parents of students of the institute appealed to the UT administrator Banwarilal Purohit for reviewing the decision. The delegation of the parents requested the authorities to ask the Directorate of Medical Education (DME) to consider the Punjab and Haryana High Court order dated April 23, 2019 and postpone the counselling.
Also Read: Review modified policy of MD, MS seat distribution at GMCH 32, UT Admin urged
