BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court has imposed exemplary cost on three dental colleges for allotting unfilled government quota seats to 81 students who had not passed the Common Entrance Test.
A division bench comprising Justice Krishna S Dixit and Justice P Krishna Bhat of Kalaburagi Bench ordered the three colleges to pay cost of Rs 8.1 crore - Rs 10 lakh per student admitted in violation of rules - to the court Registry within two months, failing which, a penalty of 2% interest per month would be imposed, and contempt proceedings would be initiated. The amount is to be transferred to the Chief Minister’s Calamity/ Covid Relief Fund.
SB Institute of Dental Science and Research, Hyderabad Karnataka Development Education Trust Dental College and Research Institute, in Bidar and S Nijalingappa Institute of Dental Sciences and Research in Kalaburagi allotted government quota seats to 81 students who had not written the CET. The Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences then cancelled the admissions multiple orders issued in 2015 and 2016, after which the colleges approached the high court.
“The petitioner-colleges have taken a tangent route in gross violation of the law of the land. Their conduct exhibits a recalcitrant attitude,” the bench said.The bench also quashed RGHUS orders cancelling the admission of the students and directed it to consider and accord ex-post facto approval within two months after they give an undertaking to render one year of rural service in Karnataka.