The Supreme Court today directed prestigious Christian Medical College of Ludhiana to pay Rs five lakh compensation to its PG student who was denied admission in her desired course despite a seat remaining vacant.
A bench, headed by Justice F M Ibrahim Kalifulla, slammed the college for not granting admission in PG course in General Medicine despite a vacant seat in the course under NRI quota due to which the student had to take admission in Pathology course.
"Though we would have been fully justified in directing exemplary amount by way of compensation, we feel it appropriate to fix it in a sum of Rupees five lacs only. The college is, therefore, directed to pay the said sum apart from refunding the sum of Rs 13,000 which the petitioner (student) had to pay for her readmission to the very same PG course of MD Pathology," the bench said.
The bench, however, refused to direct the college to induct the student Bonnie Anna George in General Medicine course as the admission schedule has come to an end.
It said "we are convinced that depriving the petitioner of the opportunity to opt for the available NRI seat in MD General Medicine during the third counselling was wholly unjustified.
"Though we have found that the College was wholly unjustified in not making available the said vacant seat to the petitioner as the admission schedule fixed by Medical Council of India and this Court is being scrupulously followed, we do not find any extraordinary situation to violate the said schedule fixed by us.
"We have held in various decisions that the time schedule should be strictly adhered to and no mid-stream admission should be allowed. We are, therefore, not inclined to give such a direction as prayed for by the petitioner," it said.
