MCI quashes admission of MBBS students in Puducherry colleges

Puducherry: The Medical Council of India has quashed admission of students to first-year MBBS course in deemed universities and private medical colleges in the Union Territory, which were done without centralised counselling and after the last date during the academic year 2016-17.

In its September 7 letter, the MCI directed the Puducherry Health Secretary and the Director of Health Services to discharge (remove from rolls of the institutions) students admitted without undergoing CENTAC counselling or after the last date for admission -- September 30, 2016 -- and file a compliance report within two weeks.

The council said the directive was being given based on the findings of its monitoring sub-committee which went into a complaint by CENTAC Students Parents Association that had alleged gross irregularities in the admission process by the four deemed universities and three private colleges last year.

The committee had perused a July 12, 2017 letter of Lt Governor Kiran Bedi to the MCI on the matter and the report of Chairperson of Permanent Admission Committee of the UT Justice Chitra Venkatraman.

Though the circular did not state the number of students to be discharged, the association claimed around 770 students had been enrolled without common counselling and after the expiry of last date for admission.

Reacting to the MCI action, Bedi in a whatsapp message said "For early prevention and detection of such irregularities, and corruption Puducherry needs independent vigilance system, a high court bench and a unit of CBI."

Chief Minister V Narayanaswamy has said the issue concerned admission of students to management quota seats in these institutions and the government was not in the picture at all.

"Admission for seats under the government quota took place in a transparent and fair manner", he told reporters here last night.

According to the MCI letter, the sub-committee in its report had stated that no combined merit list of the National Entrance cum Eligibility Test (NEET) qualified candidates was prepared by the deemed universities.

"Prima facie this indicates that the direction of the Supreme Court to maintain transparency and fairness in the admission process has been totally and blatantly disregarded," the MCI said in its letter, a copy of which had been marked to the Lt Governor among others.

The MCI also pointed out that prior to the counselling the University Grants Commission had informed the universities that they would be part of the common counselling in medical colleges organised either by the state government or through its agency based on the marks obtained in NEET.

The deemed universities had not followed the procedure while the private colleges did not prepare a combined merit list.

The private colleges had given admission only to a limited number of students through CENTAC, it added.

President of the Association of CENTAC Students Parents M Narayanasamy said only 283 students were admitted through CENTAC out of the total 1050 seats in the deemed universities and private colleges in the UT.

He said the association had complained to the Lt Governor and also to the MCI about "gross irregularities in admission of students by the institutions."