SC orders compensation to students 

Legal Correspondent 
 
NEW DELHI, November 24, 2017 00:00 IST

For admitting students without government permission

The Supreme Court on Thursday directed a medical college to grant compensation of Rs. 10 lakh each to every student which it admitted in the MBBS course without formal permission from the government.

It also said an Allahabad High Court order allowing the college to admit the 150 students for this academic year, despite the Medical Council of India (MCI) concluding that it had indulged in “unethical and callous” practices in respect of patients and even admitted fake patients, was against the principle of judicial propriety.

The Bench, led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, imposed costs of Rs. 25 lakh on the respondent, GCRG Memorial Educational Trust, to be paid within eight weeks. The students have to be refunded their fees as well.

The college was one of the 32 barred by the MCI from taking students into academic sessions of 2017-18. It had earlier approached the Supreme Court, which had allowed it to withdraw the petition. It had then moved the High Court.

The MCI, which came in appeal, said it had debarred the college from admitting students for two academic years.

The High Court had on September 1 quashed the MCI decision without even hearing it.

“Catena of cases has categorically held that in matters relating to medical and dental colleges, the High Court should refrain themselves from allowing admissions by way of orders as the same will jeopardise the career of students,” the MCI argued in the Supreme Court.

The Council argued that the HC did not even consider that the “medical college had failed even to comply with the minimum norms/standards for grant of permission for the first batch of 150 MBBS students. Therefore, the college should not have been granted provisional permission to admit a second batch of 150 MBBS students …”