Kannur and Karuna Medical admissions cancelled : Supreme Court

New Delhi: 180 admissions of medical undergraduate students of Kannur and Karuna Medical Colleges were cancelled by the Supreme Court on the basis of alleged irregularities in the admission procedure.

Justice Arun Mishra headed bench ordered 150 admission cancellations in Kannur Medical College and another 30 in Karuna Medical College, thus making it clear that the authorities will not give in to any irregularities in the admission procedure; even if it costed the students- professionally.

The Supreme Court justifying cancellations based on the High Court's October 2016 order stated reasons for cancellations to be non transparency of online admission details of students and non publishing of the corrected prospectus on their respective websites.

The Bench after perusal of student documents, indicated their fabrication, thus putting an end to all hope pinned by students involved in the litigation.

The Supreme Court even considered directing criminal action against the errant management.

The Court further ordered that Karuna Medical College make a supplementary admission list of 30 meritorious students, mentioned in the report submitted by the State Examination Controller and the Admission Supervisory Committee in the Supreme Court. These 30 are meant to replace the students vacating the 30 seats in the college.

The court put aside arguments presented by senior advocate Shyam Divan and Haris Beeran that cancelling admissions of students would have a harmful impact on the future of the students. The Bench said on the contrary, it would act as a standing warning to errant private professional institutions.

The court also barred the two medical colleges from taking in any fresh admissions in lieu of seats that have fallen vacant, due to cancellations, for the academic year 2016-17, reports the Hindu.

James James Committee for fee regulation and admission to professional colleges in the state had earlier detected wide spread irregularities in the admissions to MBBS seats by both medical colleges. But the colleges, with the interim reprieves from courts continued classes with the students; who otherwise had sought admissions flouting merit norms. The state entrance commissioner's report submitted to the High Court revealed findings that as many as 30 students who scored top ranks in the entrance test were not given admission to Karuna Medical College.

Meanwhile the Kerala Health Minister, KK Shylaja welcoming the court's decision informed that both Kannur and Karuna medical colleges had earlier refused to come to an agreement with the government on fee and admissions.

Other self-financing medical colleges had had reached a mutual agreement with the government, facilitating admissions for students for a higher number of merit seats.