HC asks govt to go on with PG med intake

Recalls Its Order To Not Publish Merit List Till June 8

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:25.04.2020

Two days after keeping in abeyance the publication of merit list for admission to post-graduate medical courses, the Madras high court on Friday recalled the order and permitted the authorities to proceed with the process.

Justice M Sundar passed the order on Friday, after the Centre and directorate of medical education in Tamil Nadu explained to the court that all-India counselling for the courses were over and that May 4 was the deadline to complete admissions. The court also recorded the submission of the authorities that candidates have a window of eight days after publication of the merit list to approach the court with grievances.

The issue pertains to a plea moved by Dr G P Arulraj, a state in-service candidate, seeking direction to the authorities to grant weightage marks to him for his service as medical officer in cadaver (brain-dead donor) maintenance unit/ liver transplant unit in admission to PG medical course 2020-2021. On April 22, the petitioner had approached court to take up his case on an urgent basis, claiming that the authorities are planning to publish the merit list on April 24 for counselling, without considering his request for incentive marks.

Allowing the mention, the court had directed the authorities to consider his representation and directed them to hold on to publishing of the merit list till June 8.

Aggrieved, the Union health ministry and the state authorities made an urgent mention before the court on Friday and submitted that the entire plea was argued under the premise that the all-India counselling was yet to be conducted while it was already completed online. The directorate general of health services (DGHS) has also instructed the respective states to hold counselling from April 20 till May 4.

“The DGHS timeline was so that students can join allotted colleges within the time stipulated by the Supreme Court in the Ashish Ranjan case, and also in accordance with the Postgraduate Medical Education (Amendment) Regulations, 2018,” the authorities said.

If the state counselling dates and release of the merit list get delayed, toppers will have no choice but to join in colleges in other states. This could even force them to pay ₹15 lakh to ₹20 lakh as penalty to get relieved from such colleges later, they added.

The order came during the hearing of a plea by a state in-service candidate for incentive marks in the admissions. Reacting to the court’s order to not publish the merit list, Centre and state authorities submitted that the counselling was over and that admission deadline was May 4