NMC suggests Stringent Rural Service Order for PG medicos admitted Illegally: SC to decide
New Delhi: Approaching the Supreme Court, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has recently suggested the bench to issue stringent directions of rural service on 10 Postgraduate medical students belonging to a Puducherry-based private medical college to compensate for their illegal admissions through backdoor entry.
NMC, the Apex medical body in India made such suggestions to the Court as it pointed out that the students, who had been admitted in their respective courses back in 2017 have already completed the course while the Madras High Court could take a call on the matter.
The Supreme Court bench comprising of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and A. S. Bopanna, which will take a call in the matter, has issued notice and directed the parties to file counter affidavit within a period of four weeks.
NMC challenged the Madras High Court order dated 29.07.2021, where the court had provided relief to the students by approving their admission. However, it had imposed a penalty on the institute for admitting the students in an illegal manner.
The history of the matter goes back even further as previously a single judge bench of the Madras HC had cancelled the admission of 65 such medicos. Medical Dialogues had reported back in 2020 that taking stringent action in the case of faulty PG medical admissions, the Madras High Court had scrapped off the PG degrees of 65 medicos and directed 6 medical colleges in Puducherry to pay Rs 5 lakh each for not abiding by the norms of CENTAC during the admission process.
At that time, the court had 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.
These institutes had allegedly admitted the 65 candidates to PG Medical (degree and diploma) courses for the academic year 2017-18. However, the charges against these colleges were that they had given the admissions on their own without the approval of the CENTAC and Puducherry government. In fact, the students had allegedly been admitted by paying cash amounts to the institutes.
However, the colleges had 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.
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."
Therefore, the court had scrapped the admission of the 65 medicos and upheld the MCI order of cancelling their admissions. Apart from this, the bench had also imposed Rs 5 lakh cost on each of the six medical colleges/universities that had illegally admitted the students in the academic year 2017-18.
Following this, Sri Manakula Vinayagar Medical College and Hospital had challenged the Single judge order and had approached the Division bench of the High Court. While considering the matter, the division bench had noted that the students, who had been admitted without the sponsorship of the CENTAC already wrote the final year examinations and are awaiting their results. It also noted the fact that the students, who had been admitted in an improper way, had served treating the corona patients during the years 2019-20 and 2020-21.
Therefore, the Court opined that if the cancellation order was upheld, the the students would lose their degrees, their medical education would be wasted and the society would lose the services of medical trained PG doctors. It also referred to the fact that even though the erstwhile Medical Council of India (MCI) had discharged the students on the ground that they had not been sponsored by the CENTAC, they were all NEET qualified candidates.
The HC bench had then granted relief to those 10 PG medicos and held, "In view of the above position also, the rights of the students have to be safeguarded. However, this Court is not going to let the institution go scot free. Therefore, the impugned order, which discharges the students from the Appellant Institution terming their admission as illegal or improper, is set aside for the reasons stated above. The penalty of Rs.5,00,000/- imposed on the institution, which adopted improper procedure for filling up the seats and admitted candidates without sponsorship of CENTAC, payable in favour of Covid-19 Relief Fund Puducherry is sustained. That apart, this Court directs the Appellant to pay a further sum of Rs.10,00,000/- to Pondicherry Advocates Welfare Fund Scheme, within a period of two weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this judgment."
Earlier this year, the National Medical Commission (NMC) approached the top court challenging the Madras High Court order. During the hearing of the case on yesterday, the counsel appearing for NMC, Mr. Gaurav Sharma submitted before the Court that even though the admissions which had been granted to the students were completely illegal, the HC has imposed a paltry penalty of Rs 5 lakhs and additionally a payment of Rs 10 lakh to the Advocates' Welfare Fund.
However, referring to the fact that the students have already complete the course, the NMC counsel submitted that "some stringent directions should be imposed in regard to the performance of rural service having regard to the nature of the admissions.."
He was quoted saying by TOI, "This would provide the rural population some expert medical help."
Considering the matter, the top court bench sought to know from the medicos if they were willing to undergo rural service as a form of atonement for their illegal PG medical admissions.
To read the Madras HC order, click on the link below.
https://medicaldialogues.in/pdf_upload/madras-hc-illegal-pg-admission-180645.pdf
To read the Supreme Court order, click on the link below.
