Re-allot MBBS seats at Pondicherry Institute of Medical Scienes based on Merit: SC tells CENTAC
New Delhi: Taking serious cognition of the Centac Admission Supervisory Committee (ASC) submission that the MBBS students were wrongly admitted at Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) following the Madras HC order that permitted the medical college with a 50 MBBS seat boost, The Supreme court has ordered Centac to re-allot seats on the basis of merit.
The court while ordering the readmission process owing to “wrong admission” of 50 MBBS candidates, refused to further interfere with the HC order that originally gave the medical college the seat boost.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that based on the recommendations of Medical Council of India (MCI), PIMS didn’t get the approval for an increase in 50 MBBS seats owing to its infrastructure shortcomings.
Challenging the said decision, the medical college knocked on the doors of the state High Court, whereby the high court bench on August 28 provided relief to PIMS by quashing the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry’s order and directing the ministry to grant renewal of permission for increase in number of MBBS seats from 100 to 150 for the academic year 2018-19.
However, challenging the said order by the HC, the MCI filed an SLP with the Supreme Court and on 05-09-2018 when the matter was mentioned, the apex court listed the matter for further date and stated that “In the meantime, there shall be stay of the operation of the impugned judgment and order.”
Read Also: Supreme Court Stay on MBBS Seat Increase at Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences
Based on the HC order, PIMS already admitted 50 more students on its own accord. Objecting to this filling of seats, Centralized Admission Committee (CEE) intervened and secured 17 MBBS seats under government quota.
Hindu reports that as per the order was given on October 9, the SC Bench recently stated that it was not inclined to interfere with the impugned judgment. In its observation, the bench noted,
“Admittedly, there was no deficiency in the inspection held on April 23, 2018. However, the Government has relied upon the inspection which was held in August 2017 and February 2018 for the admission of 150 seats. The High Court has relied upon the inspection held in April 2018 and the fact remains that 150 seats were permitted to the institution with effect from 2014 onwards.”
However, the Admission Supervisory Committee (ASC) of Centac had submitted that the students were wrongly admitted. The apex court then ruled,
“Let ASC scrutinise the fact and if any admissions were given wrongly, they shall be discontinued and substituted by the available proper candidates as per merit. Let this exercise be done within a period of seven days from today.”
The order was passed by the bench of Honourable Justices of Arun Mishra and Vineet Saran, during the hearing of a Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by the Medical Council of India (MCI) against an order of the Madras High Court.
The Hindu reports that the apex court also directed that in case any student has been admitted wrongly, his/her fees shall be refunded by the college. “This order is passed on the peculiar facts of this case, not to be treated as precedent in any other case,” the Bench concluded.
The daily adds that all those MBBS students who were given admission to PIMS during the counselling conducted by Centac, but were denied enrolment by the private medical college, get another chance to gain admission, while those who were admitted through irregular means have been left high and dry.
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