Karnataka High Court Directs Ayurveda College To Surrender One Management Seat To Govt For Admitting Student Beyond Cut-Off Date

The Karnataka High Court has directed the Mangalore-based Karnataka Ayurveda Medical College to surrender one management seat to the government during the next academic year i.e., 2024-25, for admitting a student beyond the cut off date.

Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum also imposed a cost of Rs 5 lakh on the college to be deposited with the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences and directed the College to submit an undertaking to the University stating that it will not repeat such a mistake of admitting the students beyond the cut-off date.

“In the event there is violation and students are admitted beyond cut-off date, respondent University is at liberty to hold an enquiry and withdraw the affiliation of the petitioner-Medical College, if situation warrants,” said the court.

The student Jirewad Kalyani Sunil and the college had approached the court feeling aggrieved by the inaction on the part of the respondent-University in not approving the admission of the student.

The college said that though it had sent the list of students seeking approval for admission including that of Jirewad Kalyani Sunil, respondent University has not approved the admission. “The student was admitted on 11.05.2022 in place of one Mr.Khot Abid Zameer and originals were submitted vide letter/communication dated 11.07.2022. The College could not update the admission of Ms.Jirewad Kalyani Sunil, as the online portal was closed on 10.05.2022. Thus it was requested to the University to approve the admission of Ms.Jirewad Kalyani Sunil and consequently, upload her admission into University admission portal,” it told the court. 

The bench said the case on hand also depicts the manner in which the colleges are admitting the students beyond the cut-off date and then passing the blame on University. The standard ground in all these identical writ petitions which are filed by colleges is that the online portal was closed and therefore, they could not upload and furnish the details of students admitted, "is clearly to cover up the admissions made by college after the cut-off date," said the bench.

“Though college has made a claim that the entire list of 100 students was sent to University and Ms.Jirewad Kalyani Sunil was part of the original list of students, stands falsified in view of the approval list issued by the respondent-University. The claim of the college that in the original list name of Ms.Jirewad Kalyani Sunil was also included is, not only factually incorrect but also contrary to records,” said the court.

Noting that in the petition the college admits that another student Khot Abid Zameer’s admission was not approved by the University, as he failed to furnish the original documents, the court said: “The colleges are often taking chances. After respondent-University approves the list and if vacancies are found on account of non approval of some of the students, the colleges indulge in making up these vacancies by giving admissions to students beyond the cut-off date.”

“If petitioner-college claims that in place of Mr.Khot Abid Zameer admission is given to Ms.Jirewad Kalyani Sunil, then it does not require any enquiry and it clearly demonstrates that admission is given to said student after cut-off date and after partial approval of list sent by college. Therefore, this is a clear case where admission is given to a student in blatant violation of the time schedule fixed by the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine (NCISM),” it added.

Taking into account that in the present case, it is only one student whose future is at stake on account of unlawful admission by the college, the bench took "a lenient view" "bearing in mind the interest of the student, who took admission with bonafide intent" and allowed the plea.

Case Title: Miss Jirewad Kalyani Sunil AND State of Karnataka & Others

Case No: Writ Petition No 13658 OF 2023, C/W Writ Petition No. 11214 OF 2023

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Kar) 266

Date of Order: 10-07-2023

Appearance: Advocates S G Rajendra Reddy, Patil Jagadeesh Goudar for Petitioners.

AGA Kavitha H C for R1.

Advocates Karthikeyan B S, Farah Fathima FOR R2.

Advocate N Khetty FOR R3

Click Here To Read/Download Order