Mumbai: Parents to move Supreme Court for dental admission

Mumbai: Parents of medical and dental aspirants seeking admission to the state’s private medical and dental colleges are planning to move the Supreme Court in the face of a number of seats having been left vacant in many of the institutions at the time of closure.The apex court had rejected a plea of similar nature by the state's Directorate of Education and Research (DMER) last month.

The Dental Council of India and the Central Government had been approached by dental colleges with vacant seats a few days earlier, with a request to seek an extension to the admission deadline.

According to the Supreme Court's April orders, all medical and dental colleges were supposed to have finished their admission processes by midnight, September 30, except for those under the All India Quota. While the state government was able to fill all the seats in its dental colleges and all but six seats in its medical colleges, several seats in private dental colleges are still vacant.

"Many students couldn't get admitted because of the chaos around 'spot admissions'. Why should the seats be allowed to lapse because of DMER’s fault?" said Mahendra Choudhari, a parent.

The DMER had refused admissions to students already admitted in government medical or dental colleges and were willing to cancel their admissions during spot admissions on Oct 7.

Some private medical institutions however, gave these already admitted aspirants admissions on the basis of photocopies of their documents, as the originals had already been submitted in colleges where prior admission had been granted.

The Aurangabad bench of Bombay High Court directed the DMER to admit students even if they couldn't produce original documents, later in the day. "The transfer of students from one college to the other resulted in duplication of admissions. Due to confusion, many low scoring students couldn’t find a seat," said Choudhari, adding that around 40 to 50 parents will be a part of the petition.