CHENNAI: Slamming officials of Puducherry health department for conniving with private medical colleges in committing irregularities PG medical admission, the Madras High Court ordered the government and the colleges concerned to pay a compensation of Rs 15 lakh each for 16 students.
A division bench of Justices R Subramanian and R Kalaimathi passed the orders recently on a batch of appeals filed by the affected candidates. The colleges denied admission to 28 students who were selected on merit by Central Admission Committee for the year 2017-18 for PG medical courses while admitting 34 candidates not sponsored by CENTAC.
Acting on complaints, the national medical commission (NMC) discontinued the studies of the 34 candidates. The division bench, while rejecting the prayer of the candidates seeking admission in the subsequent years owing to lapse of time, ordered compensation for 16 of 18 candidates who filed the appeal as two opted out.
The court directed the private colleges to pay Rs 10 lakh to each candidate and the CENTAC to pay Rs 5 lakh out of the total compensation, apart from Rs 1 lakh to the students separately by the colleges. The court found CENTAC and the health department “in active connivance with the colleges to make illegal admissions.” It hoped the administration changes its attitude towards medical education “at least in future.”
The officials and the colleges were also flayed for adopting a design to evade adherence to Supreme Court orders. “We find a design and a comprehensive master plan evolved by these colleges in active collaboration with the officials of the government and CENTAC to manoeuvre all checkpoints put up by the Supreme Court,” the court said.
It also did not get buoyed the argument that the seats will go waste if admissions are not made. “After all medical profession deals with life of people and any compromise on merit would have a delirious effect,” it said. The court also dismissed the appeals of private medical colleges which challenged the NMC’s order of removal of 35 non-meritorious candidates.