Education/Educational Institutions – Medical education – MBBS course – On facts, respondent applied for establishment of medical college – Deficiencies found and scheme not approved by MCI and the Central Government – Approval accorded by the Supreme Court mandated Oversight Committee that the college was permitted to make admissions for the academic year – However, conditions subject to which approval accorded, not complied with – Repeated failure on the part of the College to remove the deficiencies – On physical verification again deficiencies found – During pendency of the matter before the Central Government, filing of writ petition – Interim order by the High Court permitting the Medical College to grant provisional admissions for the Academic Session – Justification of – Held: Not justified – Permission to make admissions for the current academic session could not have been granted unless and until on physical verification everything was found to be in order – Condition of making students aware about the pendency of the matter and stating that their admissions would be subject to the result of pending litigation, not a sufficient insulation – Provisional admission and making them subject to the result of the petition may entail tremendous adverse consequences and prejudice to students – Thus, the interim order passed by the High Court set aside.
Allowing the appeal, the Court
HELD: In the face of repeated failures on part of the Respondent College to remove the deficiencies, no permission to make admissions for the current academic session could have been granted unless and until on physical verification everything was found to be in order. A condition such as making students aware about the pendency of the matter and stating that their admissions would be subject to the result of pending litigation, is not a sufficient insulation. There have been cases where after making such provisional admissions the Colleges have been denied permission upon physical verification. Questions then come up as to what is the status of such students and how best their interest can be protected. Theoretically, in terms of conditions of Essentiality Certificate the concerned State Government is obliged to take care of interest of such students. But the harsh reality is such students cannot be accommodated because in normal circumstances all the seats in every Medical College are filled up. It then becomes a case of impossibility of accommodating such students in any existing College. The entire exercise may thus result in great hardship and wastage of academic years of the concerned students. It is for this reason that while granting any interim relief very cautious approach needs to be adopted. It may be possible to expedite the process of physical verification in a given case but to allow provisional admissions and make them subject to the result of the petition may entail tremendous adverse consequences and prejudice to students. Thus, the High Court was not justified in passing interim directions and permitting the College to go ahead with provisional admissions for the Academic Session. The interim order is set aside. [Paras 12, 14][190-F-H; 191-A-B; 194-B]
Medical Council of India v. Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences and others (2004) 6 SCC 76 : [2004]
3 SCR 1119; Medical Council of India v. JSS Medical College and another (2012) 5 SCC 628 : [2012] 1 SCR 136; Medical Council of India v. Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) and ors. (2016) 11 SCC 530 : [2016] 4 SCR 403; Dental Council of India v. Dr Hedgewar Smruti Rugna Seva Mandal Hingoli and Others (2017) 13 SCC 115 – referred to.
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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