Medical admission scam: SC strikes down HC’s order, asks college to pay

NEW DELHI: In an unprecedented move, the Supreme Court struck down the Allahabad high court’s order that allowed a Lucknowbased medical college to admit 150 students to MBBS course for 2017-18. It also ordered the management to pay ₹10 lakh to each student as compensation and refund their fees.

A bench of three judges headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra termed the HC order as unfortunate and a case of breach of judicial discipline. It also slapped a fine of ₹25 lakh on GCRG Institute of Medical Science for illegally admitting the students and directed it to pay the money in the Supreme Court registry within eight weeks.

The institute’s case came into the limelight in September when a judge of a two-member Allahabad HC bench made handwritten corrections to its original order to allow the medical college in UP to admit students to MBBS course for 2017-18.

The order came in contravention to the Supreme Court direction that the HC should not pass any interim order pertaining to the academic year 2017-2018. Subsequently, the Medical Council of India (MCI) moved the SC against the order. The court had earlier remarked, “We really fail to fathom the manner in which the high court has misconstrued our order and passed the final order for 2017-2018.”

The MCI, in its petition to the SC, also highlighted various irregularities in the order.