SC strikes down Lucknow medical college admission

NEWDELHI:The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down an Allahabad high court order that allowed a Lucknow-based medical college to admit 150 students for the 2017-18 session, and also asked the institute to pay ₹10 lakh to each student as compensation, besides refunding their fees.

A three-judge bench headed by the Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra, termed the high court order as unfortunate and a case of breach of judicial discipline.

The top court also slapped a fine of ₹25 lakh on the GCRG Institute of Medical Science for illegally admitting the students and directed it to pay the money to the court registry in eight weeks.

The case came under the scanner in September when one judge of a two-member Allahabad high court bench made hand written corrections to its original order to allow the medical college to admit MBBS students for 2017-18.

The HC order was in contravention of a SC direction that the lower court shall not pass any interim order for the academic year 2017-2018. The Medical Council of India, the country’s medical education regulator, had moved the top court against the high court’s order.

THE SC ALSO SLAPPED A FINE OF ₹25 LAKH ON THE GCRG INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL SCIENCE FOR ILLEGALLY ADMITTING THE STUDENTS AND DIRECTED IT TO PAY THE MONEY TO THE COURT REGISTRY IN EIGHT WEEKS.

The court had 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.”

In its petition, the MCI also highlighted various irregularities, pointing out that the HC had originally passed an order on September 1.

That order, signed by both judges, allowed GCRG Institute to admit willing students “within the prescribed time frame”.

On September 4, one of the two judges, Narayan Shukla, made a correction by hand in the order to say, “...within the prescribed time frame, ie, till September 5, 2017.

He signed the corrections with the remark, “corrected suo moto”, a Latin term to mean he did it on his own initiative.

The GCRG Institute was among 32 new colleges that failed inspections in 2016 by the MCI.