SC issues notice on plea challenging cancellation of AIIMS INI CET counselling, Doctors call it 'First Victory'
New Delhi: While considering the plea challenging the cancellation of further rounds of INI CET PG medical counselling in the Institutes of National Importance, the Supreme Court today issued notice to the National Medical Commission (NMC) and the INIs including AIIMS, JIPMER, NIMHAS, PGIMER, and SCTIMS.
During the hearing of the case today, Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan and Advocate Tanvi Dubey appeared for the petitioners and informed the court about the timeline that got disrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They also pointed out how a total number of 737 out of seats remained vacant after the first two rounds.
Issuing notice in the matter, the top court bench has listed the matter for further hearing on October 14, 2022.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that through a recent notice, AIIMS had informed about regarding the further counselling process for INI-CET for admission in MD/MS/DM(06yrs)/M.Ch(06yrs)MDS courses for AIIMS New Delhi & 11 other INIs.
Clarifying that no further round of seat allocation shall be conducted for INI-CET July 2022 session, the notice mentioned, "In continuation of the schedule of online seat allocation and the order of Hon'ble Supreme court of India in Miscellaneous Application No. 1566/2022 in W.P. (C) No. 1329/2021, no further round of seat allocation for INI-CET July-2022 session will be conducted."
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However, this decision came as a huge shock for the residents who were eager to join the Institutes of National Importance. Referring to this, a recent press release by FAIMA Doctors Association had stated, "This sudden decision has come as a shock to the residents of the INIs who have been eagerly waiting for new residents to join the departments to replace the residents who have passed out of the departments in the last 6 months."
At such an outset, the upset doctors had approached the Supreme Court seeking relief. Apart from this, referring to the notice issued by AIIMS New Delhi, the doctors under the umbrella of Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) had also written to the AIIMS director and pointed out more than 50% vacant seats in multiple departments of various institutes.
While commenting on this, Dr. Devesh, who is a petitioner in the case and belongs to AIIMS Bhopal told Medical Dialogues, "The cancellation of open round counselling affected both the aspirants and the current doctors. Still more than 500 seats are vacant. We had approached the Supreme Court in this regard, and the Court has issued notice in the matter and listed it for further hearing on October 14, 2022.
Meanwhile, sharing the update regarding the case, Dr. Suvrankar Datta from AIIMS New Delhi has described it as the "first victory" of resident doctors. The counsel for the petitioners, Advocate Tanvi Dubey also shared the development regarding the case and stated, "Challenge mounted against order cancelling open round of counselling.More thn 50% (tentatively)still vacant."
