The Supreme Court has observed that no sympathies can be shown to medical students, who have entered through the backdoor.
The Division Bench of Justices L. Nageswara Rao, B. R. Gavai and Krishna Murari passed this order on August 17, while hearing a review petition filed by Abdul Ahad and others.
The petitioners have approached the Court, seeking review of the order passed by the Court dated July 20, 2020, dismissing the Special Leave Petition filed by Glocal University, Glocal Medical College, Super Specialty Hospital & Research Centre, and Abdul Waheeb Education & Charitable Trust.
The review petitioners were not a party to the said petitions. They were admitted in the 1st year Professional MBBS course for the Academic Session 2016-2017 in Glocal Medical College, which was affiliated to Glocal University, a deemed University.
The review petitioners said they appeared in the National Eligibility Entrance Test 2016 and qualified the same. Therefore, they became eligible to get admission in MBBS course.
A notification dated August 31, 2016 by the state of Uttar Pradesh issued a direction for conducting centralised counselling for admission to MBBS/BDS course in all colleges/universities in the state of Uttar Pradesh, including private colleges and minority institutions and further prescribed the schedule and procedure for counselling, reservation and eligibility criteria for admission.
Vide another notification dated September 2, 2016, the state directed that 50 percent of the sanctioned intake of private institutions shall be reserved for students, who had the domicile of state of Uttar Pradesh. The said direction was issued in respect of all private institutions (excluding minority institutions), after deducting the pool of 15 percent for All India quota.
The September 2 notification was challenged before the High Court of Allahabad by way of Writ Petition and other connected writ petitions. The said pleas were decided on September 15, 2016 by the Division Bench of Allahabad High Court. The order dated September 15, 2016, passed by the Division Bench of Allahabad High Court, came to be challenged by the original writ petitioners before the Court by way of Special Leave Petition.
The Medical Council of India issued a discharge letter dated January 27, 2017 to the Glocal Medical College and directed to discharge 67 students admitted by it, whose names did not figure in the list supplied by the Director General of Medical Education and Training.
According to the review petitioners, they appeared for First Year Professional MBBS examination and cleared the same. However, Glocal Medical College did not conduct the examination for the 2nd year MBBS and further, the classes and practicals were also suspended by the College.
Neeraj Kishan Kaul, Senior Counsel appearing for the review petitioners, submitted that they were duly qualified to be admitted in as much as, they had cleared the NEET examination.
He further submitted that the review petitioners were admitted through the counselling conducted by the Glocal Medical College. Not only that, they have also cleared the first year and second year examinations. It is, therefore, submitted that it will not be in the interest of justice to throw the review petitioners at this point of time.
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The Counsel for MCI as well as the Counsel for the State of Uttar Pradesh submitted that the review petitioners were admitted by backdoor entry.
It is further submitted that their admission is the result of collusion between the Glocal Medical College and the review petitioners.
It is also submitted that Glocal Medical College, being very well aware about the Notification dated August 22, 2016, had conducted private counselling, which was not permissible in law and as such, the review petitioners, who entered through backdoor entry, are not entitled to any equitable relief.
The said Notification dated August 22, 2016 came to be challenged by various petitioners, including Glocal University, before a Division Bench of the Allahabad High Court. The Allahabad High Court by an elaborate judgment dated September 15, 2016, found no fault with the notification issued by the State of Uttar Pradesh, prescribing centralized counselling for all institutions for admission to MBBS/BDS course in the state, based on NEET 2016.
It could thus clearly be seen that though minority institutions were allowed to admit the students of their community based on Centralized Counselling held by the State on the basis of NEET 2016, the same was to be done without deviating from the merit of the said students, the Court said
The court said that Neeraj Kishan Kaul, Senior Counsel, tried to submit that the Notification dated August 22, 2016 is only an administrative instruction and therefore not binding, we are unable to accept the same.
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“In the light of this position, it was not at all permissible for the Glocal Medical College to have conducted private counselling. The admissions which were conducted through the said private counselling cannot be termed as anything else but per se illegal.
Though we have all the sympathies with the students, we will not be in a position to do anything to protect the admissions, which were done in a patently illegal manner”, the Court observed.
The bench held that,
The Notification issued by the State of Uttar Pradesh on the basis of the law laid down by this Court clearly provided that the admissions were to be done only through the centralized admission process. Glocal Medical College in contravention of the said Notification conducted private counselling, which was not at all permissible in law. The students cannot be said to be ignorant about the Notification issued by the State of Uttar Pradesh.
In such a situation, no sympathies can be shown to such students, who have entered through the backdoor. Apart from that, MCI vide order dated January 27, 2017 had discharged the said students, who were not admitted through centralised admission process. Twenty-five students admitted in the same college, through the centralized admission process, were very much absorbed by the DGME in other colleges.
As such, the contention of the review petitioners that they came to know about the discharge order dated January 27, 2017 issued by MCI only when they had filed a petition in the High Court in 2019, does not stand to reason.
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“In so far as the contention with regard to the interim order passed by the Court dated March 20, 2017 is concerned, the same would clearly show that though the students were permitted to appear in the examination, their results were directed not to be published. There is no other order modifying the said order.
It is difficult to appreciate as to how the results of the students were declared for the 1st year MBBS examination, how they were admitted in the 2nd year MBBS course and how they cleared the 2nd year MBBS examination, despite the fact that MCI had discharged the students vide order dated January 27, 2017, observed the Court.
It said, “In so far as the observations of the Court in order dated September 18, 2017 in the writ petition filed by Glocal Medical College challenging the discharge order is concerned, the observation could not be construed to have vacated or modified the specific directions issued by the Court on March 20, 2017,” the Court said, while dismissing the Review Petitions.