HC relief: NMC to now transfer MBBS students of Chintpurni Medical College to Other institutes

Chandigarh: Granting relief to the medical students who had been admitted to Chintpurni Medical College, Punjab, and Haryana High Court has directed the National Medical Commission (NMC) and Punjab Government to shift the students of Chintpurni Medical College in Pathankot to other colleges.

Filing several pleas, the MBBS students of Chintpurni Medical College from academic sessions 2021-22 and 2022-23 prayed to be shifted to any other recognized, affiliated, and approved Medical College within the State of Punjab or to any other Medical College affiliated with Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS).

They argued that the college failed to provide basic infrastructure facilities in terms of building, clinical material, and teaching faculty to impart the necessary education for the Medical Professional Course being undertaken by the petitioner students.

Controversy Regarding Chintpurni Medical College:

Medical Dialogues had extensively reported about the controversial shutdown of Chintpurni Medical College after the Board of Governors of the erstwhile Medical Council of India (MCI) had found that the institute was admitting students without the MCI approval ever since its inception in 2011. In addition, the college did not have the necessary infrastructure and did not provide adequate facilities for medical studies.

Consequently, the Executive Committee of MCI recommended debarring the petitioner College from admitting students for two academic years i.e. 2017-18 and 2018-19 and to encash the bank guarantee of Rs 2 crores that was furnished by the petitioner at the time of grant of recognition dated 26.09.2016. The Central Government had accepted the MCI recommendation.

Following this, the 2011-12 and 2014-15 batch of students were shifted to other medical colleges in the state on the directions of the Supreme Court after the students sought to transfer to other medical colleges in the state. The top court had also dismissed the plea challenging the Central Government orders and had stated that the college would be entitled to pursue the permission for the academic years 2019- 20 and 2020-21 after the period of the ban.

However, back in 2022, the National Medical Commission (NMC) granted its permission to Chintpurni Medical College to admit students in 150 MBBS seats after inspecting the infrastructure of the medical college.

The controversy started once again last year after a five-member panel of BFUHS found glaring deficiencies in the medical college in terms of patient load as well as faculty and infrastructure. The BFUHS panel had stated in a report that the medical college does not have adequate infrastructure and the careers of MBBS students at the medical college were getting jeopardized because of the absence of patients, infrastructure, and teachers. Following this, the Punjab Government took cognisance of the matter.

In a letter directed to the Director of NMC, the State Additional Chief Secretary of Medical Education and Research, Anurag Agarwal had referred to the issue as a matter of grave concern and pointed out that despite earning the NMC nod, the college was not complying with the statutory regulations and guidelines.

Following this, NMC conducted an inspection and found serious deficiencies in terms of faculty, patient load and infrastructure. Based on this, NCM refused permission to the medical college to admit MBBS students for the academic year 2023-2024.

Also Read: NMC debars Chintpurni Medical College from admitting MBBS students this academic year

Plea in High Court & NMC Affidavit:

MBBS students admitted at Chintpurni Medical College during the academic sessions 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 approached the HC bench and prayed to be shifted to other medical colleges in the State.

Meanwhile, NMC filed an affidavit before the HC bench on January 5, 2024 and the Commission mentioned that an NMC panel discussed the matter concerning Chintpurni Medical College in a meeting on December 08, 2023. In the meeting, the case of the medical college along with all the relevant records and representation was discussed.

The NMC panel comprised the President of Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB) and also the officiating Chairman of NMC Dr. BN Gangadhar, the President of NMC Undergraduate Medical Education Board (UGMEB) Dr. Aruna Vanikar. Apart from them, other NMC members including Dr. Karunakar Reddy, Dr JL Meena, Dr Yogender Malik, Pankaj Agrawal were also included in the panel.

Apart from this, the Punjab Director of Medical Education (DME), and Vice-Chancellor of BFUHS were also invited to the meeting. Further, the Principal/Dean of Chintpurni Medical College was also invited to be present on the behalf of the institute.

During the meeting, the Punjab DME and the VC of BFUHS referred to the recent inspection report to highlight that the college lacked infrastructure and facilities. The panel also considered the fact that even in the past all the batches of the concerned medical college were transferred to other medical colleges and there were serious deficiencies in the institute. The panel also opined that the medical college has no clinical material to medical education to students.

Taking note of all these facts, the NMC panel decided to transfer the students admitted to the Chintpurni medical college to other medical colleges of the State, as per the procedure. Further, the NMC panel decided to explore the option of penalising the medical college for its misdeeds and repeated failure to comply with the regulations and norms set by the Commission.

The NMC panel submitted that the Commission members as well as the DMER, Punjab, and the BFUHS unanimously decided to transfer the students admitted to the medical college to other institutes in the State, by following the due procedure in this regard.

Further, the HC bench noted that the counsel for the Union Government and NMC informed the bench that a formal order conveying the decision taken by the Committee unanimously approving the transfer of the students from Chintpurni Medical College to other medical colleges in the State would be communicated to the medical college within a period of two weeks.

Meanwhile, the counsel for Punjab Government informed that a proposal for allocation of the colleges in the State to the petitioner students who have to be transferred would be made within four weeks from the date when NMC communicates the order to the Chintpurni Medical College. The NMC counsel assured the bench that the State's proposal would be forwarded to the Central Government within four weeks and the Centre submitted that the approval for the transfer of students would be given within four weeks from the date when the State submits the proposal.

The State Government informed the bench that after the Centre's approval, the students would be allocated to various medical colleges within two weeks.

Taking note of these submissions, the HC bench disposed of the petitions and mentioned in the order, "Keeping in view the abovesaid facts and circumstances and the abovesaid recorded stand of the official respondents, all the present writ petitions are disposed of as having been rendered infructuous. The official respondents would be bound by the statements made before this Court. It would be open to respondent No.5 to challenge the decision taken in the minutes of meeting dated 18.12.2023 and also reflected in the affidavit dated 05.01.2024 and the formal decision to be communicated by respondent No.2, in accordance with law and in case any such challenge is made, the same would be considered independently and the present order would not come in the way of respondent No.5 in challenging the same or for the Court in considering the pleas raised by respondent No.5."

To view the order, click on the link below:

https://medicaldialogues.in/pdf_upload/chintpurni-medical-college-judgment-230404.pdf

Also Read: BFUHS cancels affiliation of Chintpurni Medical College