Action sought against 10 Puducherry medical colleges for flouting admission norms

The Madras High Court has issued notice to the authorities concerned on a PIL seeking a direction to 10 medical colleges and deemed universities in Puducherry to surrender 883 MBBS seats in lieu of those filled by them allegedly flouting norms in the previous two academic years.

The public interest litigation also sought penal action against the institutions.

A division bench of Justices T S Sivagnanam and Bhavani Subbaroyan ordered notice to the medical counselling committee under the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry and the Centralised Admission Committee (CENTAC) of Puducherry, returnable in three weeks.

Petitioner G Panchapakesan submitted that the students were allotted seats by the institutions in 2016-17 without going through the process of common counselling and after the cutoff date of September 30, 2017 fixed by the Medical Council of India and the Supreme Court for admission.

After several representations to the MCI and following the intervention of Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi, the MCI on September 7, 2017 had issued show-cause notices to the students.

Aggrieved, the students had approached the high court, which had granted an interim stay on the operation of the show-cause notices.

None of the official respondents took any steps to expedite the pending cases, the petitioner charged.

As per MCI regulations, the students can be discharged from the course.

The institutions, which had admitted students after the specified last date, shall also be liable for penal action as prescribed by MCI.

The action included surrender of the seats equivalent to the extent of such admission made from its sanctioned intake capacity for the succeeding academic year, Ravi contended.