Don’t allow medical, dental college admissions: SC to HCs

High courts must not allow medical and dental colleges to admit students until their legal dispute with the Centre over their affiliation is resolved, the Supreme Court held on Tuesday, in a verdict that would bring relief to several aspirants who are left in the lurch if the institution loses a case.

A bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra said permitting colleges to admit students even before their affiliation is approved can jeopardize a student’s future.

“It is not a construction which is built at the risk of a plaintiff or the defendant which can be demolished or redeemed by grant of compensation. It is a situation where the order has the potentiality to play with the career and life of young,” the bench held, striking down the Bombay high court order that allowed a dental college in Aurangabad to take students for its post-graduation course.

The institution had approached the HC after it was denied permission to start postgraduate courses in Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopaedics. The admission process undertaken was ordered to be at the risk of the college.

Assailing the HC order, Dental Council of India (DCI) counsel Gaurav Sharma argued the directive was impermissible because it brought in “anarchy and chaos in the process of admission to medical courses.”

“By saying that the institution may give admission at its own risk invites further chaotic and unfortunate situations,” he impressed upon the bench. The college could not have started a course in the absence of an approval, Sharma submitted.