CHENNAI: Reprimanding the selection committee of the Directorate of Medical Education (DME) for brazen violation of the court orders regarding admission to post-graduate (PG) medical courses, the Madras High Court has stayed the proceedings of special stray counselling.
Justice Anita Sumanth passed the orders granting the stay based on petitions challenging admission to certain candidates in the state quota for PG courses despite they already getting admission under the All India Quota (AIQ).
The judge noted the orders passed on November 27 had been ‘specifically’ and ‘consciously’ violated; the results of the special stray counselling were declared on November 27 itself violating the stipulated day of November 28 as per the notification.
“There was a specific direction that any further process shall be subject to the result of the writ petitions. This direction has not been brought to the notice of the public and the selection process has been completed in violation of the direction,” she rued.
Describing the act of the respondent authorities, particularly the selection committee, as “contumacious”, the judge said she would deal with it at the appropriate time. “In the light of the aforesaid, there shall be an interim stay of all further proceedings in connection with the special stray counselling round until further orders,” she said.
The petitioners have challenged the allotment of seats to 50 candidates under the state quota even after getting allotment under the AIQ. As per the prospectus for medical admission, the state government debars candidates who were allotted a seat in the first and second rounds of counselling from being eligible for the third round of counselling, and so the 50 candidates should not have been allowed to participate, in the first place, at the stray counselling. Moreover, the seats that are left unfilled in the AIQ would land in no man’s land as they would not be reverted to the state quota.
Meanwhile, the government moved an appeal seeking to stay the interim stay on the proceedings of stray counselling since the admission process has to be wound up by November end as per the Supreme Court orders. Additional Advocate General (AAG) J Ravindran said the matter before the bench of Justices R Mahadevan and Mohammed Shaffiq on Thursday seeking an urgent hearing. However, the bench stated it would take up the matter on Friday because it was not on the hearing list for the day.