57 MBBS seats vacant! Gujarat HC asks NMC, MCC to justify no further counselling
Gujarat High Court
Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court recently asked the National Medical Commission (NMC) and the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) to justify the reasons for their 'reluctance' to conduct another round of counselling, even though 57 MBBS seats remained vacant in the State after the completion of four rounds of counselling.
While considering the matter, the high court has also asked the ACPUMC to respond to the plea and listed the matter for further hearing on Tuesday.
Last month, the MEDGUJ Association of Gujarat Medical Colleges filed a plea before the High Court after the authorities appeared unwilling to hold further rounds of counselling for MBBS courses, even though several seats remained vacant after the completion of three rounds of counselling conducted by the Admission Committee for Professional Undergraduate Medical Courses (ACPUMC). There are around 6400 MBBS seats available across the medical colleges in Gujarat.
Approaching the HC bench, the association submitted that last year, the authorities conducted an additional admission round even after the deadline when only four MBBS seats remained vacant. Contradictorily, this year, many more MBBS seats remained vacant after the admission deadline.
Therefore, the petitioners contended that not holding another round of admissions by ACPUMC was detrimental to the students as well as the society at large, as India continues to face a shortage of qualified doctors.
As per the latest media report by the Times of India, during the hearing of the case on Monday, the counsel for the association submitted that a common admission process is followed for four medical courses- MBBS, BDS, BAMS, and BHMS. It was submitted that on December 24, NMC and MCC decided to conduct another round of counselling for the BDS courses.
Referring to this, the petitioners argued that a similar methodology should be adopted for MBBS admissions, considering the number of students willing to secure seats in the course. Accordingly, the petitioner's counsel urged the HC bench to exercise its jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution and direct the MCC and NMC to hold another round of MBBS admissions.
When the HC bench questioned the NMC counsel regarding this, the counsel, on the other hand, informed the bench that he had been instructed that conducting another round of MBBS admissions would not be possible.
Taking note of this submission, Justice Nirzar Desai observed, "Considering the fact that the admission process is common for all four courses — MBBS, BDS, BHMS and BAMS — and also considering that a similar practice was adopted last year to fill four vacant MBBS seats, and even this year for the BDS course, what is the impediment or justifiable reason for not conducting one more round of admissions for the MBBS course?"
