National Medical Commission Has Power To Stop Admissions In Medical Colleges: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court, on Friday, stayed the operation of the order of the Bombay High Court at Aurangabad, which permitted Annasaheb Chudaman Patil Memorial Medical College to admit students to fill up its 100 seats in the MBBS course for the academic year 2021-2022.The Court noted that Section 26(1)(f) of the National Medical Commission Act 2019 gives power to the National Medical Commisison to issue directions for stoppage of medical admissions and hence the view of the High Court that the Commission lacked such power was not correct. The Apex Court held - "Prima facie, it appears the finding of the High Court regarding lack of authority to issue an order for stoppage of admissions does not appear to be correct in view of Section 26(f) of the National Medical Commission Act. We accordingly order and direct that the operative direction in para 37 in the impugned order, permitting the institution to admit 100 MBBS students for 2021-2022, shall remain stayed pending further orders."Considering the glaring deficiencies captured in a report pursuant to a surprise inspection conducted on 14-15.01.2022 a Bench comprising Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and Aniruddha Bose directed the National Medical Commission ("NMC") and the Medical Assessment and Rating Board ("MARB") to carry out a fresh inspection within a period of two months to ascertain if the deficiencies continue to exist. It noted - "The NMC and MARB would be at liberty to carry out a fresh inspection within a period of 2 months for the purpose of determining whether any deficiencies in complying with the required norms continue to exist."Senior Advocate, Mr. Nidesh Gupta appearing on behalf of the Medical College apprised the Bench that it has already admitted students for the academic year 2021-2022, and therefore stoppage of admission would be detrimental to them. The Bench noted, that on the contrary if the students are allowed to pursue the course and down the line in about six months if recognition is withdrawn, then the students will be left in the dark. It noted - "If we allow this to continue then it would prejudice the students. 6 months down the line when permission is withdrawn they will be completely in the dark…We have to ensure that we maintain a balance not in favour of the institution but in the interest of the students. You might have to refund their money."On the last date of hearing, the Court was appalled by the discrepancies, in the nature of fake patients and forged data. It noted that the High Court had merely ordered a fresh inspection and remanded the matter for consideration. On 04.03.2022, the Bombay High Court, Aurangabad Bench had passed the impugned order holding that the MARB does not have the power to issue order directing stoppage of admission. Thereafter, a notice was issued by the authorities to the concerned college to show cause as to why their recognition granted by letter dated 15.07.2021 should not be withdrawn in view of the deficiencies noted during the surprise inspection. In the show cause notice, the college had been directed to stop admission for the year 2021-2022. At the outset, Justice Chandrachud expressed concern with respect to the order of the High Court which, he opined, had failed to consider Section 26(f) of the National Medical Commission Act, 2019 ("Act") conferring power on the authority to issue order of stoppage of admission. "Section 26(f) of the Act gives you power to stop admission. What is the High Court doing?" Mr. Gupta informed the Bench that there are two categories of seats. For the first five years there is a provision for permitted seats, after which the seats get recognised. He submitted that MARB has absolute power to stop admission to the permitted seats, but for recognised seats MARB only has power to recommend withdrawal of recognition to NMC, which can pass an order under Section 38 of the Act. It was pointed out that the show cause notice was issued to the concerned college by MARB and not NMC, which is the appropriate authority to do so. Baffled by the findings of the report, Justice Chandrachud remarked - "On the day when the inspection team came in, the data for a future date was recorded there. Patients are examined in the morning, but in the evening they all leave; children do not match up with records, they were all healthy." Mr. Gupta relied upon judgments of the Apex Court to submit that there are guidelines for the manner in which assessment is to be conducted. One of the requirements is to have independent assessors, which has been flouted in the present case. "This assessment is to be done by independent assessors who are chosen from a random pool of professors with 6 years experience. Here they are employees of the Union. This is prohibited. Assessors are handpicked." He argued that, in fact, all the safeguards set out in the guidelines have been violated while conducting the...

National Medical Commission Has Power To Stop Admissions In Medical Colleges: Supreme Court

Sohini Chowdhury

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