"Are we not ashamed of opposing NEET" asks HC judge

DNA

Madras High Court today made some critical observations on Tamil Nadu government's opposition to National Eligibility cum Entrance Test.

Are we not ashamed of opposing the NEET. Do you under estimate the ability of our students and the standard of education in Tamil Nadu ?

"Do you feel that our students will not do better than students of other states? When all other states have not objected what is the reason for (TN) opposing it? Justice N Kirubakaran asked.

The observations were made during the hearing of a batch of petitions seeking allotment of 50 per cent of the PG seats in private colleges to government quota.

He posed the questions when counsel for state health department brought to the notice of the court that on NEET, the Tamil Nadu assembly had passed a bill to exempt the state and it was pending assent from the President.

Later, passing interim orders, the Judge directed the Medical Council of India to file an affidavit on the number of seats approved in post-graduate degree and diploma courses in the colleges in Tamil Nadu and how they were filled in the last academic year.

He also sought to know the steps taken by MCI to see that the seats were filled up as per merits and regulations and quota fixed by the MCI. The affidavit should also state the procedure to be followed for 2017-18 by the colleges.

The petitioners sought a direction to the Tamil Nadu Health Secretary to appropriate 50 per cent of seats in recognised PG and diploma courses in respect of each speciality from all private medical colleges.

During the hearing, the Judge also pulled up MCI for its 'inaction' as he posed a series of questions.

Being the approving authority, what was the role being played by MCI in controlling the institutions which are running like 'business firms?' he asked.

The judge asked what MCI was doing when the institutions did not follow the guidelines.

When the institutions collect huge amounts is it not your duty to monitor the institutions being an authority of giving approval to the institutions, he said.

Expressing anguish over the cost incurred in medical education where a student had to pay near about Rs 1.5 crore for specially offered courses, the Judge asked "How we can expect these people to serve to the Public at large." Referring to a submission that the government was spending Rs.20 lakhs on each medical student, he said the government ought to have made them to work for the public (in government hospitals) at least ten years.

The Judge directed the MCI to state as to how much had been spent for a medical student in graduate and PG courses separately as per the budgetary allocation in this regard.

MCI was also directed to state whether it had computerised data base in connection with the faculties in each institution.

Impleading the Union Ministry of Health and family affairs as the respondent, the Judge adjourned the matter to April 3 for further hearing.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)

High Court order

Three days to go, Governor halts shifting of health varsity

By Rashmi Belur  |  Express News Service  |   Published: 17th March 2017 05:44 AM  |  

BENGALURU: Governor Vajubhai Vala, who is also the Chancellor of universities in the state, has put the brakes on the state government’s move to shift Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) from Bengaluru to Ramanagara.

It comes as a major embarrassment to the government which attempted to bulldoze the university into shifting the campus.

The university had even printed the invitations for the inauguration scheduled to be held on March 19. Former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy was to preside over the function and Energy Minister and Ramanagara District incharge Minister D K Shivakumar was to inaugurate it.
The Governor has issued an official communication directing RGUHS Vice-Chancellor Dr K S Ravindranath not to shift the campus.

Raj Bhavan sources told Express that late Tuesday, the Governor had called the Vice-Chancellor to Raj Bhavan and issued a letter asking him to stop the shifting process.

When contacted, Ravindranath confirmed it and said, “I have received a communication from the governor asking not to shift the campus now keeping in mind students’ interests as examinations are on. I have communicated this to the Medical Education Minister and Ramanagara District in-charge Minister and also the principal secretary to the Medical Education Department.”

Consequently, the preparations for shifting the campus to a temporary building at the Deputy Commissioner’s office at Ramanagara have been stopped.  Ravindranath said, “We have to put the scheduled event on hold until we get further communication from Raj Bhavan.”

When asked about the development, Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash Patil only said, “We will look into it.”

Appointment of law officers a prerogative of State government: Madras High Court

By Express News Service  |   Published: 17th March 2017 05:39 AM  |  

CHENNAI: The First Benchof Madras High Court, of acting Chief Justice Huluvadi G Ramesh and Justice RMT Teekka Raman, has held that the appointment of law officers for lower level courts up to the high court is purely the prerogative of the State which cannot be interfered with by courts.

When the batch of PILs, including one from advocate Vasanthakumar, which challenged the appointment of law officers, came up before the Bench on Thursday, the first Bench held that the courts could not interfere with the administrative functions of the Government.

The petitioners’ main contention was that persons close to the ruling party alone were given the law officers’ posts.

Holding that the petitioners had no locus standi to raise a question on the issue, it disposed of all the PILs and gave liberty to the State Government to act in line with the Supreme Court guidelines. If there was any violation of these guidelines, the petitioners could approach the apex court under Article 226 of the Constitution, the Bench said.
Earlier, the first Bench headed by Chief Justice SK Kaul (since elevated to Supreme Court) had admitted the PILs and appointed an amicus curiae to frame draft rules for the appointments.

Hire purchaser of car ends up facing music in court

A resident of Kanniyakumari district had to face the music in the Madras High Court Bench here on Thursday for having allowed his car under hypothecation to be taken away by the financier due to default of loan repayment and then lodging a vehicle theft complaint against a bonafide purchaser of the vehicle in an auction conducted by the finance firm.

Finding that the Arumanai police had jumped into action on the basis of a complaint made over phone and went to the extent of seizing the vehicle from the auction buyer, Justice P.N. Prakash directed the police to return the vehicle to him immediately. The hire purchaser was also ordered to pay a cost of Rs. 5,000 to the person against whom the complaint was lodged.

It was trite that under an hire purchase agreement, if there was a default in payment, the hirer had the authority to seize the vehicle and no criminal prosecution could be launched against the hirer as it was covered by the contract, the judge said while dismissing a writ petition filed by the hire purchaser, Albin Benedict, seeking a direction to the police to hand over the car to him.

Mr. Justice Prakash pointed out that TVS Credit Services had taken away the car from the writ petitioner on October 26, 2015, and sold it in an auction on September 17, 2016. However, on February 17 this year, he made a phone call to the police control room and complained of his car being in possession of an individual in Thuckalay.

Acting on the basis of the oral complaint, the police seized the vehicle from the auction buyer after suspecting it to have been stolen. It was only in the subsequent enquiry it came to light that the finance company had taken possession of the car in accordance with law on account of default of payment of the car loan and sold it through auction.

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Madurai youths allege foul play in exam held for postal jobs

Allege that Haryana candidates scored high marks in Tamil proficiency section

A group of youngsters, preparing for competitive examinations, petitioned the Collector’s office here on Thursday raising suspicion of foul play in examination conducted by the Department of Posts to fill 309 Postman and Mail Guard vacancies in its Tamil Nadu Postal Circle.

In the results published online on Tuesday, the youngsters allegedly found that a considerable number of top scorers were from Haryana. Surprisingly the scored unbelievably high marks in the 25-mark section meant for checking one’s Tamil proficiency. The examination conducted in multiple choice format had four sections - General Knowledge, Mathematics, English and Tamil - each having 25 one-mark questions.

Tamil syllabus

The syllabus for Tamil section included compound and complex sentences, proverbs, sentence correction, sentences used in colloquial dialect and grammatical concepts such as ‘punarchi’ and ‘anigal.’ “There is nothing wrong in candidates from other States applying, since all Indian nationals are eligible. However, it is inexplicable how candidates from Haryana could score 24 out of 25 in Tamil,” said one of the petitioners.

They stumbled upon this pattern when they curiously searched the results published in PDF format on the website to find top scorers among the nearly 1.10 lakh candidates who took the exam. “When we found that majority of the top scorers had North Indian names, we keyed in their registration numbers in the option available to find details of candidates. A random check showed almost all were from Haryana but for a few from Maharashtra,” a petitioner said, showing printouts.

“We even called a few of them on their mobile numbers available on the website. No one understood Tamil. They spoke in broken English,” he said.

Option disabled

Interestingly, the option to check details of candidates was disabled from Thursday morning. “Despite completing post graduation, unemployment is forcing us to apply for these jobs that demand just matriculation. If such exams are not conducted in a fair manner, what else can we do?” asked another petitioner.

While the results of all candidates have been released, DoP is yet to publish the list of selected candidates.

The selection will be done based on marks in compliance with vacancies reserved for OBC, SC, ST and other categories.

Alleging that the discrepancies indicated leakage of question papers or other malpractices, the petitioners demanded a thorough inquiry and that the examinations be conducted again.

Use of air horns to be stopped from March 20

The police, the Motor Vehicle Department, and the State Pollution Control Board would jointly conduct inspections to prevent the use air horns in vehicles plying in the city. The inspections will commence from March 20.

The police have already begun the inspections.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) S. Saravanan said that around 20 vehicles were being checked a day. Those using musical horns in their vehicle were also being slapped with fine.

First time offenders are slapped with a fine of Rs. 100. A fine of Rs. 500 will be imposed if the same vehicle is found to be using air horn for a second time. Major offenders are private buses, mini vans, lorries and share autos.

Action will be taken against two-wheelers who use high decibel horns, said Mr. Saravanan.

The police said that most of the air horns seized were capable of producing noise above 70 decibel.

The police have roped in the pollution control board to check the decibel levels, and the motor vehicle department to take action according to the Motor Vehicles Department Act.

The police will partner with an NGO to conduct awareness programmes on the ill effects of high decibel noise, said Mr. Saravanan.

The fine would be up to Rs. 5,000 if air horns were found in vehicles, he added.