NEW DELHI: Lakhs of students toil to secure admissions in educational institutions on the basis of merit and it is high time that backdoor entries, including in medical colleges, stopped, the Delhi High Court has said.
The high court's observation came while dismissing an appeal by five students who were granted admission in 2016 by LN Medical College Hospital and Research Centre, Bhopal, without their undergoing the centralised counselling conducted by the Department of Medical Education (DME).
However, according to the Supreme Court’s direction, admissions in all government and private medical colleges in the country have to be done through the centralised counselling system.
Consequently, the Medical Council of India (MCI) issued letters of discharge regarding the five petitioners in April 2017 and thereafter, several more communications were sent but neither the students nor the medical college paid any heed to them. The college continued to treat the petitioners as their students.
Eventually, the five petitioners filed a petition seeking quashing of the discharge communications issued by the MCI, which was dismissed by the single judge. They filed an appeal challenging the single judge’s order. However, this plea was also dismissed.