MBBS Seat blocking : Karnataka to increase penalty from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 25 lakh

Seat Blocking is an act by high ranking candidates first opting for a particular seat in a round and then not joining the same, making the seat available for the next round. It is alleged that many medical colleges collude with the high ranking candidates to indulge in seat blocking so that popular MBBS seats can be made available for lesser deserving candidates.

Karnataka state is a popular hub for medical aspirants every year. Seeing the share of MBBS seats and medical colleges; seat blocking scam menace is wildly witnessed in the state during the admission process. Therefore, in order to curb this nuisance, the state government has decided to increase the penalty of the parties who indulge in seat blocking.

Read Also: Alleged Seat Blocking In MBBS Admissions: RGUHS Withholds First Year Result Of 212 MBBS Students

The Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences has already submitted a report to the medical education department recently, recommending the existing rules be changed as per which penalty could be exempted in certain cases when the candidate would surrender a seat even after the mop-up round in case she/he got a seat in a better medical college.

However, the provision was misused by some candidates and medical colleges, leading to this scam.

Hence, the state has decided to bring in a rule that no seat can be surrendered after the mop-up round. The information to this effect was announced by the Deputy Chief Minister Ashwath Narayan who recently stated to TNIE that a panel of experts has recommended hefty fines to prevent seat-blocking in medical colleges.

"Hefty fines have been proposed for those indulging in seat-blocking scams and each case will be taken up for criminal investigation individually. They have proposed that surrendering of seats should be done before the mop-up round", the minister who holds medical and higher education portfolios said.

The minister further added that he will place the report before the cabinet for approval. The RGUHS report mentioned that the MBBS students must be discouraged from surrendering seats and the penalty be increased to Rs 25 lakh from the existing Rs 5 lakh. Further, no medical college should admit a student after the cutoff date to avoid misuse, reports TOI

In November last year, in a significant measure towards curbing the menace of MBBS, BDS and other professional seat blocking scam, the Government of Karnataka was reported to likely to amend the Karnataka Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admissions and determination of Fee) Act 2006.

Read Also: MBBS Candidates To Pay Entire Course Fee As Penalty For Surrendering Seats After Mop-Up Round, Karnataka Govt Plans Amendment