“Issue notice. Returnable within four weeks,” a Bench comprising Chief Justice HL Dattu and Justices Arun Kumar Mishra and Amitava Roy said.
The order for issuing notices to parties, including Principal Secretary, Medical Education Department and Madhya Pradesh Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee, came after senior advocate Kapil Sibal and advocate Prashant Bhushan informed the Bench about the magnitude of the scam.
Dealing with the modus operandi, Bhushan, appearing for Anand Rai who claims to be the whistle-blower in Vyapam and DMAT scams, said that seats in private medical colleges are filled through Vyapam and DMAT.
“The seat distribution in private dental and medical college is in ratio of 42:43:15” for state quota, management quota and NRI quota, respectively, the plea said.
While the state quota of 42 per cent is filled through Vyapam, which is already part of the CBI probe, the management seats are filled through DMAT conducted by the Association of Private Dental and Medical Colleges (APDMC).
Unscrupulous students of medical colleges sit in DMAT to help others in consideration of money and later, give up their seats at the last moment as they are already studying in one or the other medical colleges, Sibal said explaining the modus operandi.
The seats vacated by the “racketeer students are filled illegally by private medical colleges,” he said. The submission was supported by Bhushan too. The bench, which at the beginning, said that the pleas may be heard by the High Court, later issued notices on them.
It also sought responses on another PIL of another whistle-blower Ashish Chaturvedi, filed through advocate Vaibhav Srivastava.
Chaturvedi, in his plea, has sought direction to CBI to register a criminal cases and “conduct a thorough” probe into DMAT scam of Madhya Pradesh in which management quota seats were filled by Association of Private Dental and medical colleges (APDMC) illegally.
“Cancellation scam, whereby on last date of counselling i.e. 30th September, there would be en-masse cancellation of admissions by students and same seats filled up on the same day by private unaided dental and medical colleges illegally.
“And prosecute private unaided dental and medical colleges and associated persons which indulge in criminal and illegal activities of running a racket of illegal admissions in MBBS/BDS/PG/MDS courses conducted through DMAT/cancellation in State of M.P.; and/or...”.
“There are six government medical colleges and one government dental college in Madhya Pradesh with approximately 1195 admissions/seats per year (MBBS seats- 850; BDS seats- 40; PG-300; MDS-5 seats),” the plea said.
MP bandh evokes mixed response, Cong demands Chouhan’s ouster
The Congress on Thursday stepped up its demand for resignation of MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, as the day-long statewide bandh called by the opposition party over the Vyapam scam evoked a mixed response. Congress claimed that the bandh, which passed off peacefully, was "successful" while the ruling BJP termed it as "totally flop" even as a section of the minority community openly opposed it. Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh and state unit President Arun Yadav reiterated the party's demand that Chouhan must resign to facilitate a fair probe into the scam that relates to alleged rigging of examinations for recruitment in Government jobs and admissions in professional colleges in MP.