High Court stays admissions to PG courses at St. John’s academy

Order was passed while hearing a petition questioning the process

The High Court of Karnataka has stayed all further admissions to postgraduate medical courses at St. John’s National Academy of Health Sciences, Bengaluru.

Also, the court stayed collection of fees from the candidates named in the provisional list for admission to the PG medical courses if the fee is yet to be collected, besides directing the academy to keep one seat of MD Paediatrics vacant.

A Division Bench comprising Justice Jayant M. Patel and Justice N.K. Sudhindrarao passed the interim order on a petition filed by Rachana Kishore Ubrangala, a MBBS graduate from Mangaluru who is an aspirant for a post-graduate course in the academy.

According to her petition, though she has secured higher marks in the NEET, she has not been considered in the provisional list while less meritorious students, as per the NEET result, were considered for admission.

The petition points out that the academy, instead of adhering to the Supreme Court approved selection criterion based on the NEET ranking as fixed by the Medical Council of India, has prescribed its own selection process, including practical test score and interview in addition to the NEET ranking.

The petition claims that the academy has no right to prescribe any additional criteria other than the one fixed by the MCI as per the law.

Following this, the bench said that “prima facie it appears that the MCI regulations provide for the NEET ranking, and such criteria will be diluted if any other marks are considered, like practical test, interview etc.”

Meanwhile, the Bench prima facie found ‘objectionable’ a notice put out on the academy’s website by its director, a copy of which was produced before the court. It directed the director of the academy to be personally present in the court on March 23.

In the notice, the academy has said that it is approaching the High Court to have ‘St. John’s PG admissions 2017-18 declared valid on several legal grounds’ against a March 11 letter from the Directorate of Medical Education, which had suggested that the process is ‘invalid’.

“St. John’s is confident of getting a favourable verdict from the High Court validating its PG admissions for 2017-18,” the director has stated in the notice.

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