SC’s oversight panel legalises ‘rejected’ medical colleges

A Supreme Court-appointed panel legalised more than 3,000 admissions in 26 medical colleges last year, ignoring its own inspectors who found the institutes lacking in basic facilities, recent official communication show.

The SC set up the panel, Oversight Committee (OC), in 2016 to suggest measures to improve medical education in India and review decisions of the regulator, Medical Council of India (MCI). Former chief justice RM Lodha led the three-member OC. One of the most preferred career choices in India, the standard of medical education has deteriorated over the years, according to a parliamentary panel report last year.

There are 460 medical colleges in the country, 202 of them government run. In a letter to the health ministry on May 14, the OC said 109 new colleges sought permission to admit medical students last year but the MCI approved only 17.

The rest approached the OC, which allowed 34 colleges to admit students on the condition that they will have to pass a fresh inspection. A four-member inspection team, jointly formed by the OC and MCI, visited these colleges in November-December and found 32 grossly deficient in basic facilities such as faculty, resident doctors, patients and medical equipment.

Only two colleges passed the inspection. The MCI said the 32 colleges will forfeit their ~2 crore security deposit each and will be denied permission to admit students for two years.

However, the OC – vested with overriding powers —reversed the MCI order and legalised the admissions of 3099 students for 2016-17. It also asked the ministry to allow these colleges to participate in the admission process for 2017-18. For the remaining six colleges, the OC asked the government to give them one more opportunity. “It is strange that the Oversight Committee has disregarded the recommendations of the MCI which are based on inspections conducted by the inspectors of the Oversight Committee itself,” MCI’s president Jayshree Mehta said.

The OC didn’t respond to an HT mail. The health ministry declined to comment. Colleges gave various excuses to the inspectors, the documents show. Most of them said on the day of inspection, during the demonetisation period, most of their doctors had gone to the bank. The OC term expired on May 15, 2017 but the SC is likely to ask the ministry to extend it, sources said.

KK Aggarwal, national president, Indian Medical Association, said the OC has set a wrong precedent. “If a college’s tall claims of good facilities are the basis of grating permission to run medical education, then why are we wasting time and resources on inspecting colleges?” he said.