SC: Monetary compensation to students if MCI fails college

Providing some sigh of relief to students who seek admission to medical colleges, only to be left in lurch if the college is not granted an MCI approval, the Supreme Court has ordered a monetary compensation for such students.

Failure of a medical college to get an MCI approval can be over the reason of lack of adequate facilities and infrastructure, as noted by the apex court.

The SC also noted that the college administration and management is liable in such cases and should compensate the students monetarily.

The judgment came through a case being heard in the SC concerning the withdrawal of approval to a private medical college Odisha's Kalahandi district. Following with the 124 students already admitted in the institute are now not sure what the future hold for them.

There was a similar fate met by the first batch of the Sardar Rajas Medical College and Hospital, set up by Tamil Nadu-based Selvam Education and Charitable Trust.

Following on this case, Selvam Trust has been ordered to deposit Rs 2 cr in the court registry with a motive to compensate the 124 students.

As a counter argument in the case, the Trust had replied that only once the MCI's decision has been established as correct then it was liable to pay. However, this argument has been dismissed by the court on the grounds that the subject matter should be handled on its present grounds. Nowhere will we allow a condition to be precedent for the purpose of compensating the students, as implied by the court.

The latest hearing of the petition filed by three medical colleges in which the students of the Sardar Rajas Medical College were to be accommodated was heard yesterday. Supreme Court was to hear the petition filed by medicos of two Government-run and one private medical colleges on the relocation of Kalahadni Jaring-based Sardar Rajas Medical College and Research centre (SRMC&RC). The apex court had earlier directed the Government to complete the admission process within seven days keeping the admission fees at par with the government medical colleges in the State

As reported by Express, "That should not be the subject matter of the present case; and that cannot be a condition precedent for the purpose of granting compensation to the students," it maintained and added that the quantum of liability shall be adjudged later. While the MCI had granted conditional approval to the Selvam Trust college for 100 seats for the 2013-14 academic session, the regulator later barred admission after a subsequent inspection failed to meet the MCI norms.