Telangana High Court issues notice to NMC, State over reallocation of MBBS, PG medical students

Written by Barsha Misra Published On 2022-06-12T09:30:28+05:30 | Updated On 12 Jun 2022 9:30 AM IST

Telangana High Court issues notice to NMC, State over reallocation of MBBS, PG medical students

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court recently sought to know from the National Medical Commission (NMC) and the State Government about the process by which they propose to shift students to other medical colleges so that the interest of the students stay protected.

Directing them to file a reply within two weeks, the HC bench comprising of chief justice Satish Sharma and Justice Abhinand Shavili clarified that the role of the court was limited and only the expert bodies can come up with a proper mechanism.

Such observations came from the bench while it was considering a plea by 48 PG medical students of MNR Medical College who sought directions upon NMC and the State for issuing guidelines to shift the affected students to other Government and private medical colleges in the State.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that following a surprise inspection, the National Medical Commission (NMC) recently cancelled MBBS and PG medical admissions in three private medical colleges in the State resulting in a huge decrease in the total number of seats.

While MBBS and postgraduate courses have been cancelled at MNR Medical College and Hospital, Sangareddy, in the case of Mahavir Institute of Medical Sciences, Vikarabad, the Apex Medical Regulator has cancelled the PG medical seats. Apart from this, TRR Institute of Medical Sciences, Patancheru lost its letter of permission for the first renewal and second batch of admission.

Also Read: HC seeks NMC's response on cancellation of 150 MBBS, 39 PG seats at Mahavir Institute of Medical Sciences

Although NMC had conducted the surprise inspection back on March 30, 2022, it acted on the inspection reports only after completion of the admission process of UG and PG medical courses.

Recently, the State Government intervened to solve the matter and set up a high-level committee as well. Apart from this, it also wrote to the NMC and assured giving directions to the medical colleges to rectify their mistakes.

Meanwhile, TRR Institute of Medical Sciences and MIMS approached the High Court seeking a stay on the NMC order. Consequently, the vacation bench of HC out a stay on the NMC order of cancelling admission of 150 fresh candidates at the TRR Institute of Medical Sciences until the Apex Medical Body takes a call on the statutory appeal filed by the aggrieved college.

However, when MIMS approached the HC, the court dismissed the plea with an observation that medical colleges cannot run with the help of stay orders. At such an outset, the students started protesting and around 50 such students belonging to those three institutes staged a protest at KNRUHS and demanded that the University accommodates them in other colleges where seats are available. During the protest, the students met with the Registrar of the University, Dr D Praveen Kumar and submitted a memorandum regarding the issue.

Although the State Government is trying to find a solution for these 520 students and in fact, the State has already written to the Centre seeking directions, the students are still in dilemma and concerned about their future.

Recently around 48 such affected PG medical students belonging to MNR Medical College approached a Division bench of Telangana High Court and sought a direction on the National Medical Commission (NMC) for issuing guidelines to the State for reallocating the students to existing Government and Private Medical Colleges in the State within a specific and short time frame without affecting the Academic year of the Petitioners.

The students also questioned the delay on the part of the Telangana State and KNRUHS for reallocating the students. They claimed that the authorities were not taking the necessary steps to solve this issue even after 20 days have passed since the date of cancellation of the PG admissions in MNR College.

As per the latest media report by Deccan Chronicle, the counsel for NMC informed the court that the guidelines issued for reallocating students of TRR medical college and MIMS are also applicable in the case of MNR Medical College and the State may adopt those guidelines.

The NMC counsel further argued that continuing education of students in medical institutes that lack the required infrastructure is not in the interest of students and in fact, it is contrary to the public interest.

The New Indian Express adds that the State Government submitted before the court that it has already formed a high-powered committee and presented a report to NMC with an observation that extra seats might be required for reallocating the students to other institutes.

Taking note of the submissions, the HC bench issued notices to the NMC and the Telangana Government and asked them to explain the way in which they are planning to sort the problems and agonies of the affected medical students.

Directing them to file their reply within two weeks, the court noted that in such issues, "our role is limited," and only expert bodies can chalk out an appropriate mechanism.

TNIE adds that the HC bench also allowed the TRR medical college students to withdraw their plea and file a new one seeking directions from the State for allowing them to pursue their MBBS courses.

Also Read: Medical Colleges cannot run with Stay Orders: HC denies relief to Mahavir Institute of Medical Sciences

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Source : with inputs

Barsha Misra

Barsha completed her Master's in English from the University of Burdwan, West Bengal in 2018. Having a knack for Journalism she joined Medical Dialogues back in 2020. She mainly covers news about medico legal cases, NMC/DCI updates, medical education issues including the latest updates about medical and dental colleges in India. She can be contacted at editorial@medicaldialogues.in.