Interim Orders Allowing Provisional Admissions To Medical Colleges Entail Tremendous Adverse Consequences & Prejudice To Students: SC [Read Judgment]

‘A condition such as making students aware about the pendency of the matter and stating that their admissions would be subject to the result of pending litigation is not a sufficient insulation.’The Supreme Court, while setting aside an interim order of the high court permitting a medical college to provisionally admit students to first MBBS course, observed that such orders allowing provisional admissions and making them subject to the result of the petition may entail tremendous adverse consequences and prejudice to students.The High Court of Punjab and Haryana in an interim order had permitted a medical college to go ahead with admissions to first MBBS course for the academic session 2018-19. The Medical Council of India assailed this order before the apex court.A bench of Justice UU Lalit and Justice Deepak Gupta, perusing the inspection records pertaining to medical college, observed that in the face of repeated failures on part of the college to remove the deficiencies, no permission to make admissions for the current academic session could have been granted unless and until on physical verification everything was found to be in order.The bench took note of the following facts: Even at the initial stage, the physical inspection was undertaken twice and since the deficiencies were found, the scheme was not approved by MCI and the Central Government. It was only because of the approval accorded by the Supreme Court mandated Oversight Committee that the respondent college was permitted to make admissions for the academic year 2016-2017. The conditions subject to which said approval was accorded were not found to have been complied and the deficiencies were found to be persisting. The matter was considered twice by MCI and the Central Government and it was decided to debar the respondent college for two years. The physical verification in compliance of the order of this court again found deficiencies. The matter was again considered but resulted in negative recommendation. The assertion that there had been compliance was, on the strength of documentation itself, found to be inaccurate and wanting in three areas. The subsequent inspection found such assertion completely inaccurate and therefore resulted in negative recommendation. While the contest was pending at the level of the Central Government, the present writ petition was filed in which the interim direction has been issued.In this context, the bench said: “A condition such as making students aware about the pendency of the matter and stating that their admissions would be subject to the result of pending litigation, is not a sufficient insulation. We have repeatedly seen cases where after making such provisional admissions the Colleges have been denied permission upon physical verification. Questions then come up as to what is the status of such students and how best their interest can be protected. Theoretically, in terms of conditions of Essentiality Certificate the concerned State Government is obliged to take care of interest of such students. But the harsh reality is such students cannot be accommodated because in normal circumstances all the seats in every Medical College are filled up. It then becomes a case of impossibility of accommodating such students in any existing College.”Reiterating the need to take cautious approach, the bench said: “The entire exercise may thus result in great hardship and wastage of academic years of the concerned students. It is for this reason that while granting any interim relief very cautious approach needs to be adopted. It may be possible to expedite the process of physical verification in a given case but to allow provisional admissions and make them subject to the result of the petition may entail tremendous adverse consequences and prejudice to students.”The bench also referred to similar order passed in other cases like in Medical Council of India v. Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences and Medical Council of India v. JSS Medical College and Another.Read the Judgment Here

Interim Orders Allowing Provisional Admissions To Medical Colleges Entail Tremendous Adverse Consequences & Prejudice To Students: SC [Read Judgment]

Ashok Kini

Tags