11 MBBS Admissions at Kerala Medical College declared VOID by AFRC

Thiruvananthapuram: The Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee for Medical Education in Kerala has held the admission of 11 MBBS students attached to Dr Somervell Memorial CSI Medical College, Karakkonam, as "void", on account of producing fake community certificates.

This stern action is pursuant to the allegations submitted by three NEET-Qualified candidates, who moved the State High Court alleging anomalies in MBBS admission at the medical college. It had been alleged that MBBS seats were up for sale in the medical college and the management collected lakhs of rupees for seats by accepting fake community certificates.

Taking serious cognition of the same, the HC directed the committee to look into the matter.

Complying with the court's directive on the case, the Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee issued notices to the Bishops and Priests as well as the village officers, who issued minority community certificates to the students and got their clarification statements recorded.

The committee also issued notices to the MBBS students directing them to produce documents to prove their community and to establish their right of admission in their allotted category.

The Committee, headed by Honourable Justice R Rajendrababu in its recent order said that a comprehensive probe has proved that all the 11 students were given admission to MBBS course this year on the basis of fake community certificates issued by concerned Church authorities.

Rt Rev A Dharmaraj Rasalam, Bishop of CSI south Kerala diocese, told the committee that CMS Anglican churches/diocese were considered for minority quota seats as those churches did not have medical colleges of their own. It was on the basis of the request of CMS Anglican church that admission committee of CSI decided to do the favour. But he could not submit any documentary evidence to prove the same.

Rt. Rev. David V Lukose when examined admitted that CMS Anglican Churches have 13 churches with nearly 2500 members, whereas the CSI (SIUC) Diocese was having a population of nearly 25 lakhs.

Bishop Dharmaraj Rasalam admitted that CMS Anglican Church for whom the admission committee made the recommendation is not part of the CSI Church and that CMS Anglican Church is an independent separate religious denomination of which Rt. Rev. David V Lukose is the Bishop.

Viewing the above submissions, the committee noted,

"In the above circumstances, the assignment of 15 seats to the CMS Anglican Churches could be with ulterior motives of collecting bribes as alleged in the complaints filed before the committee… It would be relevant to note that Most. Rev. Thomas K Oommen, Bishop of CSI, Madhya Kerala Diocese and also the Moderator of CSI Churches had stated before the Committee, when he was examined, that CMS Anglican Churches does not exist, as RR 7 those churches had already merged with CSI. He further stated that CMS Anglican Churches are not part of the CSI Church. The above evidence would establish that CMS Anglican Churches are independent churches which have no connection with CSI and SIUC...."

"...CSI Medical College, Karakonam is a minority college established and administrated by the minority community viz the Church of South India (CSI) (South India United Church- SIUC). Being a minority educational institution, the above minority community which established the college, was entitled to make reservation for admission in the above medical college to their own candidates belonging to the above minority community. So far as admissions of candidates of other community are concerned their admission has to be purely on the basis of the merit and such students are not entitled for minority community reservation. It is true that members of other community can also be admitted to MBBS course in the RR 8 above college but it can only be in the General category on merit."

"...It is doubtful whether the transfer or assignment of minority quota or reservation seats to CMS Anglican Churches was allowable as per law or any established principles. The reservation of seats under minority community quota is available only to the community which established the college, viz CSI (SIUC). The evidence in this matter would show that CMS Anglican Churches are totally independent separate religious denomination which has no connection with CSI or SIUC. It would be relevant to note that CMS Anglican Churches were not included in the communal quota in the prospectus. The assignment or inclusion of CMS Anglican Churches in the minority community quota at a very late stage appears to be with ulterior motives...."

Justifying their side, the village officers claimed that the students insisted them to issue the certificates in the printed form and that was the last day of the production of the certificates and hence, they could not make any further enquiries. "The Village Officers should have been more careful in issuing the community certificates. They should have verified the authenticated documents and issued their certificates. In the light of RR 16 the available evidence, no reliance can be placed on the minority community certificates issued by the above village officers solely relying on the fake certificates issued by Bishop Rt. Rev. David V Lukose," the committee noted.

The evidence collected by the committee showed that 9 of those students do not belong to Members/ Associate Members of CMS Anglican Church but obtained fake certificates and created some documents to show that they filed an application for conversion in 2017. Rt. Rev. David V Lukose produced certain parish registers. Prima facie those registers appeared to be new and had been prepared recently. Those were incomplete and were not prepared and kept in the ordering course of the church activities and hence much reliance cannot be placed on those Registers. The complainants have a case that the Bishop issued the Minority Community certificate receiving huge amount towards bribe.

The said evidence established that the 9 students did not belong to the community CMS Anglican Church and they belonged to other denominations of the Christian community and the certificate issued by Rt. Rev. David V Lukose are fake. For the other medical student, the committee found that the Bishop of CSI RR 18 Madhya Kerala Diocese is not competent to issue a certificate as "Members/ Associate Members of CMS Anglican Church," and the village officer solely issued the certificate on the basis of the certificate issued by the Bishop.

Lastly, for another MBBS student, the committee noted found that the student belonged to another category, therefore, he cannot be given admission under category IV (ZX).

Noting the aforesaid, the MBBS admission of the students was not approved and was considered liable to be rejected.

In the light of the direction from the High Court of Kerala, the Committee was hereby competent to pass the order rejecting the admission of the 11 students who took admission on the basis of the fake certificates. Hence, the committee concluded,

"Therefore, the RR 23 admission of the 11 students are rejected against Dr Somervell Memorial CSI Medical College, Karakonam, during the academic year 2018-19."

Attached is the detailed order below: