Supreme Court slaps penalty on eering medical college for violating regulations
While Saraswati Medical College will have to cough up Rs 5 crore, students who were admitted against the regulations have
Supreme Court slaps penalty on eering medical college for violating regulations While Saraswati Medical College will have to cough up Rs 5 crore, students who were admitted against the regulations have been asked to do community service for two years. The Supreme Court has not taken kindly to willfully defying regulations by a medical college and imposed a hefty monetary penalty on the...
Supreme Court slaps penalty on eering medical college for violating regulations
While Saraswati Medical College will have to cough up Rs 5 crore, students who were admitted against the regulations have been asked to do community service for two years.
The Supreme Court has not taken kindly to willfully defying regulations by a medical college and imposed a hefty monetary penalty on the erring college while showing leniency on students who were admitted to the MBBS course.
An Apex Court bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and S Ravindra Bhat on 24 February 2021 imposed a penalty of Rs five crore on the Saraswati Medical College and ordered the 132 students to do two years of community service after completing their MBBS course. The bench was of the view that the students were fully aware at the time of taking admission that their admissions were contrary to the Medical Council of India (MCI) Regulations.
Saraswati Medical College has been asked to deposit the fine with the Court's registry within eight weeks with clear instructions that the amount of penalty cannot be collected from the students.
Saraswati Medical College was accused of violating MCI Regulations on Graduate Medical Education, 1997 (Regulations) [Saraswati Educational Charitable Trust v. Union of India].
"Intentional violation of the Regulations by the Petitioner-College while granting admission to 132 students in the first year MBBS course for the academic year 2017-2018 cannot be condoned," the Court held, adding that the college should not to recover the amount from the students in any manner whatsoever.
Saraswati Medical College had approached the Apex Court challenging an MCI notice, dated 29 September 2017 directing it to discharge 132 out of 150 students admitted in the first year of the MBBS course for the academic year 2017-2018.
Out of them, 71 students had filed a petition seeking permission to allow them to continue their studies.
Established by Saraswati Educational Charitable Trust in the year 2016, Saraswati Medical College had challenged in the Top Court denial of its application for grant of renewal of permission for admission of 150 students for the academic year 2017-2018 by the MCI.
The Supreme Court directed the MCI in September 2017 to permit the college to take part in the counselling process for the year 2017-2018. The cut-off date for completion of admission in respect of the college was extended till 5 September 2017 and the respondents were directed to make available students willing to take admission in the college through central counselling in order of merit.
The college was charged with issuing an urgent notice informing 735 NEET candidates to avail themselves of the opportunity of admission in the college and admitted 132 students. The admission process was undertaken without waiting for Director General Medical Education to send the list of students from which the college was supposed to grant admissions.
The Director-General had sent a list of 150 students based on their merit amongst 735 students. However, only nine out of 150 students had reported and completed their admission formalities by the cut-off date of 5 September.
It was brought before the Court that the college instead of waiting for the response of the Director-General on its request for a second list proceeded to issue notice inviting students to take admission.
The MCI subsequently issued a notice to the college, directing it to discharge 132 students admitted in the second round.
Defending its stand, Saraswati Medical College argued before the Supreme Court while challenging the notice saying that the Director-General was "lethargic" in not allotting the sufficient number of students for admission till 4 September 2017 even though he was informed about the order passed by the Supreme Court on 1 September 2017 itself. The college said that due to this it was left with no other choice but to grant admissions from the list of 735 candidates who have applied pursuant to the 4 September notice of the Director-General.
The Supreme Court bench agreed that while the admissions of 132 students in the college for the academic year 2017-2018 were contrary to the Regulations and done intentionally, instead of cancelling the admissions, it opted to impose a fine of Rs five crore on the petitioner college.
"The students who have secured admission cannot be said to be innocent as they knew fully well that their names were not recommended by the Director-General Medical Education. However, taking note of the fact that the students have completed the second year MBBS course, cancelling their admissions at this stage would not serve any useful purpose," the SC bench held and asked the 132 students to do community service for two years after completing their MBBS course.
"The National Medical Commission shall decide the details and work out the modalities of the community service to be rendered by the 132 students," the Apex Court added.