Madras HC comes to rescue of 787 MBBS students discharged by MCI, Govt

Chennai: Offering relief to around 787 MBBS students, the Madras High Court recently set aside the orders passed by erstwhile Medical Council of India and the Government of Puducherry where the students admitted during the academic year 2016-2017 had been discharged.

The discharge orders had been passed by erstwhile MCI and the Government on the ground that many of the students had not been admitted on the basis of common counselling and many had been admitted after the cut-off date of September 30, 2016.

While considering the appeals moved by some private institutes and students admitted during 2017 and 2018, the HC bench took note of the fact that the students have already completed four years of their course and were currently in their fifth year of study. Therefore, the HC bench comprising of Justice Krishnan Ramasamy opined that discharging the students now would be disastrous since the students are expecting to complete their studies soon.

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As per the latest media report by The Hindu, taking note of the error in the admission procedure, the erstwhile MCI, now NMC had discharged the admission of around 787 MBBS students in an order dated September 7, 2017. Following this, another order had been passed by the Government of Puducherry on September 14, 2017 where the Government had taken the same stand regarding the admission of the 787 students who had been admitted under the management quota of the private institutes during the academic year 2016-2017.

When the matter reached the High Court, the bench noted that the complaint had been made by a Permanent Admission Committee, headed by a retired High Court judge. After perusing the report of the Permanent Admission Committee, it was the observation of the bench that the report had been prepared merely on the basis of suspicion and the Government and the MCI relied on such a report to discharge the students.

Pointing out that MCI was not even able to segregate the number of students who had been admitted after the cut-off date, the bench opined that after almost a year of the course of the medicos, the Government and the MCI ought not to have been "carried away" by such a complaint and discharged the students.

Noting that the students have completed four years of their course and are now in their fifth year of study, the HC bench observed that discharging the students now would be disastrous since the students would have nurtured the thoughts of completing their studies by this time and they also involved themselves fully in obtaining a medical degree for practicing.

Offering relief to the medicos, the HC bench further noted, "Even assuming that there has been error in the procedure followed by the colleges, the same is not sufficient to set aside the admissions of the petitioners/students by the MCI and the Government of Puducherry."

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