PG Medical Seats scam: HC orders FIR, directs Rs 8 lakh compensation to 2 meritorious candidates
Chennai: The former Tamil Nadu Secretary, Selection Committee, Directorate of Medical Education landed in soup after a CB-CID inquiry has revealed that he was involved in illegally permitting 13 private medical colleges to fill in 90 PG medical seats without caring for the merit criteria for 2020-2021.
The Madras High Court, which had ordered CB-CID to inquire the matter, has now directed it to register FIRs against the officials involved and private colleges concerned. The court has also ordered the state not to pay pension benefits to him and to pay a compensation of Rs 4 Lakh to each of the two candidates who lost the chance to get admitted in their preferred PG courses due to the unethical admission process.
The amount will be later recovered from the retirement benefits of the doctor.
"If this Court does not step in to take action in accordance with law, the faith that has been reposed on this Court by the public would have a whirlwind downfall. Therefore, on a consideration of the entire materials placed before this Court in the form of enquiry reports and material documents, it clearly transpires that the then Secretary, Selection Committee, Directorate of Medical Education, has not only been instrumental in depriving the meritorious candidates of their rightful seats under the management quota in the private medical colleges, which are under the scanner of the enquiry officer, by not following the mandate of the Medical Council of India and the orders of the Hon'ble Supreme Court, but even on a holistic consideration of the case, this Court is of the view that the nexus does not start or end with him," Justice M Dhandapani said.
The tentacles of illegality are cast far and wide as the perpetrator of the crime could not be an isolated individual in the form of the then Secretary, but the said officer would definitely had been aided by other persons in stage-managing the aforesaid act, which has deprived the meritorious candidates of their right to seats of their choice under the management quota, reports PTI.The amount of Rs 8 lakh shall be initially paid by the government within four weeks to the two petitioners and later recovered from the retirement benefits of the doctor, the judge added.
The matter concerns three different petitions filed by M Keethanjali, M S Santhosh, and Santhosh Kumar, all of whom are seeking instruction from the authorities to fill PG medical seats that have been declared vacant as per the selection committee's seat matrix dated August 17, 2020. In their petition, the petitioners sought admission of eligible candidates only by conducting mop up counselling for management seats and by considering their NEET-PG rank, reports TOI.
On October 28, 2020, Justice N. Anand Venkatesh suspected flouting of norms in the admission process and ordered a CB-CID investigation into the matter. Following that, the police officials proceeded to file periodic status reports on the investigation's progress. Dr S******* was named Secretary of the Selection Committee on March 4, 2016 and was set to retire on July 31, 2019, according to the investigation reports. He was re-employed in the same position for 19 months, from July 31, 2019 to February 26, 2021, and had served without legitimate orders from January 1 to February 26, 2021.
As per a recent media report by The Hindu, during the CB-CID investigation it was found that despite the fact that two merit lists were posted on the selection committee's website, they did not include the contact information for the candidates on the list, which allowed private colleges to make their own admissions on August 31, 2020 under the guise that the seats would otherwise be wasted.
The Selection Committee did not verify their rank in the merit list when issuing provisional allotment orders to 90 candidates admitted by the 13 colleges on their own later, despite having the power to withhold provisional allotment orders to undeserving candidates, states the inquiry reports.
The court has now ordered the DGP to ensure that the team of CB-CID officials who had been investigating the case so far on court orders should continue to do so after the FIR is filed, rather than being shifted elsewhere. The court expressed high disappointment over the unethical selection of candidates during the admission process as it deprived the meritorious candidates by allocating seats to 'less meritorious' candidates with higher monetary considerations.
According to TOI, the court further added that this unethical practice is similar to selling and buying of education which will destroy the quality of education and thus the lives of citizens will depend at less meritorious individuals. Justice Dhandapani said, "A perusal of the report reveals a dark reality engulfing the society through the medical mafia, thereby, monetary considerations outweigh merit." The two students who lost their chance during the admission were awarded a compensation of Rs. 4 lakh each in court, as well as the freedom to seek alternative legal remedies.
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