HCs must not allow medical colleges to admit students until legal dispute resolved, says SC
ALLOWING COLLEGES TO ADMIT STUDENTS BEFORE AFFILIATION CAN JEOPARDIZE A STUDENT’S FUTURE
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 often stand to lose in case the institutions lose the case.
A bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra said HCs must circumspect before permitting the colleges to admit students even before their affiliation is approved because such orders 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 the Centre refused to accord it permission for the postgraduate course 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 brings 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 approval of the scheme, Sharma submitted.
He contended the HC should have adjudicated the dispute to decide whether the college had actually removed the deficiencies pointed by an inspection committee or the decision making process in not recommending the approval was perverse. Sharma said the order virtually amounted to granting permission for the admission in certain courses that had not received sanction.
Although the bench set aside the HC order, it gave some respite to three students who were admitted pursuant to the direction. SC ordered the college to adjust the three from the 2017-18 academic session. It also directed the college to deposit ₹30 lakh before the top court’s registry, saying it would decide later what to do with the money.