SC allows 8 govt colleges to enrol 800 students for MBBS and BDS

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday made an exception by allowing eight government medical colleges in three states, which were barred by the Centre for certain deficiencies, to enrol 800 students in MBBS and BDS courses for academic year 2018-19.

The top court fixed the accountability on the chief secretary and principal secretary in-charge of medical education of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand for rectifying the deficiencies pointed out by the Medical Council of India (MCI) within the stipulated time-line given by the respective state governments.

A vacation bench of justices S Abdul Nazeer and Indu Malhotra asked the MCI to carry out an inspection after three months to verify if the state governments had rectified the deficiencies pointed out by it.

"We hereby direct that in view of the undertakings submitted by the principal secretaries of the three states, permission is granted to the said government medical colleges for admission to the MBBS course for the current academic year, 2018-19," the bench said.

It added that the seats in these colleges would be included in the seat matrix, for which counselling is scheduled to take place on June 19.

"The MCI shall carry out an inspection after three months to verify that the state governments have in fact carried out compliance to rectify the deficiencies pointed out. If the deficiencies are not removed within the period specified, the principal secretary of each of the states will be held personally responsible for non-compliance with the orders passed by this court," the bench said.

It, however, clarified that the order passed in the present case should not be treated as a precedent and added that it was passed considering the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case as otherwise, over 800 seats in government medical colleges would have been wasted.

The court kept the petition pending for compliance and listed it for further hearing on September 25.

The eight government medical colleges which were barred from admitting students for 2018-19 are -- Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College, Gaya, Vardhman Institute of Medical Sciences, Pawapuri, Nalanda and Government Medical College, Bettiah -- all in Bihar -- which have a total of 250 seats.

The Mahatma Gandhi Medical College at Jamshedpur, Jharkhand was also denied permission to admit students by the Centre.