'Draconian, Disastrous': Madras High Court Quashes MCI Order Cancelling Admissions Of 778 Medical Students

The Madras High court recently set aside the order of the Medical Council of India (MCI) and the Government of Puducherry (GOP) cancelling the admissions of 778 students in the MBBS course on the ground that their admission to these course was made illegally, without following merit. The bench of Justice Krishnan Ramasamy made the orders on a batch of writ petitions filed by the students and the colleges alleging that the order of the MCI was illegal, arbitrary and made without observing the principles of natural justice. The court held that the order was made without considering the procedure of admission adopted by the colleges and that passing of such draconian directions was arbitrary. The court also observed that implementation of such directions would turn out to be disastrous for the students who were now pursuing their fifth year of the MBBS course. The court also observed that the students cannot be put in a disadvantage due to the inability of the concerned authorities to formulate a proper mechanism for admission."Even assuming that there has been error in the procedure followed by Colleges, same is not sufficient to set aside the admissions of the petitioners/students by the MCI, and GOP," it said.Background MCI introduced NEET for the first time in India during the academic year 2016 – 17. NEET become mandatory through out India for admissions in Medical and Dental Colleges following the decision in Sankalp Charitable Trust & Anr. Vs. UOI and others(2016) . The MCI also introduced Section 10-D by virtue of amendment in Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Act, 2016 by virtue of which all Medical Educational Institutions both the Under Graduate and Post Graduate level shall conduct uniform entrance examination. Based on requests, the State Governments were exempted from NEET examinations but the exemption was limited to admission of students in the State Government Quota in Government Medical Colleges and in Private Medical Colleges and not to management quota seats. On 09.08.2016, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India sent a letter to all the States/Union Territory Governments stating that they shall preferably go for combined counseling for admission to MBBS/BDS Courses. However, on 15.09.2016, the University Grants Commission (UGC) sent a clarification to all Medical Institutions Deemed to be Universities that, in the event, for any reason, common counseling is not being held by the State Government or the Deemed to be Universities are not covered in the State Government common counseling, Deemed to be Universities of that State should put up a transparent system of admission, under which, no student should be denied or deprived from applying for admission and admission should be done based on purely inter-se merit amongst the applicants based on marks obtained in NEET. The Government of Puducherry did not conducted any common counseling for the academic year 2016-17, and informed that the admission process would be overseen by the Permanent Admission Committee (PAC). The Deemed to be Universities submitted that admission to these colleges should be conducted as per UGC Guidelines and the same was taken on records. Subsequent to the meeting conducted by PAC with the self financing Colleges, Colleges have furnished all the details as sought by PAC. PAC directed all the self financing colleges as well as the Deemed Universities to fill up the management quota seats on or before last cut-off date, i.e. 30.09.2016, based on which, the Colleges filled up seats, and no admission was made subsequent to the said date. On 10.03.2017, a Notification was issued for common counseling, whereby, Section 5A was introduced to Regulations on Graduate Medical Education 1997, by virtue of Regulations on Graduate Medical Education (First Amendment) 2017. On 07.09.2017, MCI passed the impugned discharge order marking a copy to all the Colleges and the Government of Puducherry, based on which, Government of Puducherry, passed the consequential impugned order dated 14.09.2017, to discharge students, who are not admitted through CENTAC for the academic year 2016-17 and also students, who were admitted after the last date of admission i.e., 30.09.2016. The Pondicherry University also passed order dated 05.07.2017 stating that, I year MBBS Exam would be conducted only for those students, whose qualification are recognized and registered as matriculates of their University for the academic year 2016-2017 and for the remaining students admitted under the management quota (NEET 2016), examination will be conducted on receipt of recognition from Academic Section, Pondicherry University. Petitioner's Submissions The petitioners submitted the MCI directions were illegal, improper and bereft of essential particulars and were vague. They submitted that the orders were issued without proper understanding of the facts. ...

'Draconian, Disastrous': Madras High Court Quashes MCI Order Cancelling Admissions Of 778 Medical Students

Upasana Sajeev

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