TN Govt knocks SC doors in the PG medical admission case

Chennai: The state Government in order to save itself from contempt of court by the High Court for non compliance of its June 16 orders, of recalibrating the postgraduate medical merit list quashed by it, on Friday, informed the court of having filed a special leave petition(SLP) in the Supreme Court on the issue. The government has pleaded for some more time from the High Court, as well.

A two member bench comprising of Justice R Suresh Kumar and Justice Rajiv Shakhder had quashed the list presented by the state on May 7, and given a directive for change in lis,t except for those names admitted under 3 specific categories,.

In the eyes of the court, the list amendement order became an essentiality as the government had categorized all public health centers, numbering 1,174, as rural, and thereby, awarded incentive marks to all in service doctors working there.

Its decision had further led to more that 90% of all available postgraduate medical and diploma courses being taken up by doctors in government service alone.

In its June 16 directive, the High Court had not only quashed the list, but considering the urgency in the matter, given the government just three days to amend the entire list, except for those names admitted under specific categories.

Its been a week since the court directive was issued , however,the government has yet to enact on it. On Friday the Advocate General Tamil Nadu, R Muthukumaraswamy brought up the matter in front of the bench, in order to avoid contempt, and asked for time till Wednesday. He informed the bench of the SLP submitted by the government in the apex court on the issue.

The judges reiterating urgency in the matter being a reason for their asking the authorities for a list redo, questioned how a time extention could be granted. It is already beyond schedule, the court observed.

However, the Advocate General's assurance that the matter would come up for an early hearing in the apex court and that the government would submit the outcome to the bench here, led the the judges to finally adjourn the case for a hearing on June 28 reports, the TOI.