BENGALURU: The High Court of Karnataka directed the Director of Medical Education (DME) to temporarily transfer 99 MBBS first-year students admitted to GR Medical College Hospital and Research Centre in Mangaluru to other private colleges in the State to help them appear for the examination to be held next month.
This is in view of the Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB) of the National Medical Commission (NMC) initiating legal action on finding the college forging a letter for renewal of permission for MBBS course for 2nd batch (1st renewal) for the academic year 2022-23.
Passing the interim order after hearing a petition filed by Dhatri DS Avnvekar and 98 other students studying in the college, a division bench of Justice G Narendar and Justice Vijaykumar A Patil said this interim order is subject to the final orders on the writ petitions filed by the college.
The Bench said the exercise of redistribution of students should be completed by October 3. The court said it was apparent that a serious error was committed in permitting the admission of the petitioners to the college which at that point of time was not granted permission to proceed with admissions.
The Advocate General submitted that since the petitioners have been admitted to a private college and as the fee structure in government and private colleges varied, they have to be accommodated according to the quota under which they have been admitted, and that too, in private institutions. Hence, the authorities need some time to transfer the students to 24 private colleges and file an affidavit, he said.
The counsel, appearing on behalf of the NMC, submitted that the NMC has already issued a communication to the State Government, allowing the transfer of the students.
After this, the court directed the counsel, representing the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, to file an affidavit placing on record the steps that the university would take post re-distribution of the students and the schedule within which the same will be completed.
The counsel representing the Union Government submitted that the appeal filed by the college has been rejected as it had been filed beyond the stipulated period. The court then noted that the said aspects about the permission and right of admission of the college would be looked into separately.
Meanwhile, the college furnished a communication dated September 13, 2023, claiming that the NMC has granted permission to admit one batch of students against the UG course’s annual intake of 150 seats.