No Sympathies Can Be Shown To Students Who Have Entered Through Backdoor: Supreme Court Denies Relief To Medical College Students
A three-judge Bench of JusticeL Nageswara Rao, Justice BR Gavai and Justice Krishna Murari observed that the Court cannot show any sympathy to students who entered medical colleges through backdoor. The Court further held that admissions conducted through private counseling were illegal as the college granting admissions did not follow the notification of the State issued in this regard.
The Court was adjudicating upon a review petition filed by some medical students of the Glocal Medical College. The Petitioners' college had challenged an order passed by the Medical Council of India (MCI) whereby, 67 students of the Glocal Medical College were directed to be discharged. The Petitioners claimed that they were enrolled in the First Year MBBS course, in Academic Year 2016-17, after clearing the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET). The Petitioners also submitted that they were admitted to the MBBS course through the private counseling conducted by the Medical College. When Glocal Medical College did not conduct the examination for the 2nd year MBBS and classes were also suspended, the Petitioners filed a writ petition before the Allahabad High Court. The said writ petition was disposed of with liberty to the Petitioners to approach the Supreme Court.
The Petitioners contended that they had cleared their 1st and 2nd-year examinations and hence "it will not be in the interest of justice to throw the review petitioners at this point of time." The Respondents, on the other hand, contended that the Petitioners were given a backdoor entry. The Respondents further submitted that admission of the Petitioners was the result of collusion between them and Glocal Medical College.
The Court noted that there was a notification issued by the State of Uttar Pradesh, which prescribed centralized counseling for all institutions for admission to MBBS/BDS course in the State, based on NEET 2016. The Court further observed that this notification was challenged before a Division Bench of the Allahabad High Court. However, the Division Bench found no faults in the Notification.
While referring to the order passed by the Division Bench, the Supreme Court observed, "It could thus clearly be seen that though minority institutions were allowed to admit the students of their community based on Centralized Counselling held by the State on the basis of NEET 2016, the same was to be done without deviating from the merit of the said students. "
While relying on the Judgement passed in State of Madhya Pradesh v. Jainarayan Choukseyand others, the Court noted, "In the light of this position, it was not at all permissible for the Glocal Medical College to have conducted private counselling. The admissions which were conducted through the said private counselling cannot be termed as anything else but per se illegal."
"Though we have all the sympathies with the students, we will not be in a position to do anything to protect the admissions, which were done in a patently illegal manner, "asserted the Court.
After assessing all the facts and contentions, the Court observed, "The Notification issued by the State of Uttar Pradesh on the basis of the law laid down by this Court clearly provided that the admissions were to be done only through the centralized admission process. Glocal Medical College in contravention of the said Notification conducted private counselling, which was not at all permissible in law. The students cannot be said to be ignorant about the Notification issued by the State of Uttar Pradesh."
"In such a situation, no sympathies can be shown to such students who have entered through backdoor.", reiterated the Court.
The Court accordingly dismissed the Review Petition.