Supreme Court slams lapses in medical college admissions

New Delhi: In an apparent expression of its exasperation over the state of medical education in the country, the Supreme Court slammed the authorities for ignoring the admission procedures and virtually selling the seats.

"The best way for medical test (admission) is to put the seats to auction and whosoever bids successfully should be awarded admission," sarcastically said the apex court bench of Justice B. Sudershan Reddy and Justice S.S. Nijjar on Friday.

The court's observations came in a case in which a medical college admitted six Class 12 students without their appearing in a pre-medical test. The students and the college defended the admissions.

Senior counsel K.K. Venugopal, appearing for the students, questioned the Rajasthan High Court's order faulting the students' admission to a medical college affiliated to the Rajasthan University of Health Sciences.

He said, "It is the court that holds force against me", prompting Justice Reddy to say: "We also seem to be suffering from the same syndrome."

"I have great reservations over the state of medical colleges in the country," said Justice Reddy, adding "(It is) not that we discount our (apex court) contribution (in the existing state of medical education)".

When Venugopal argued that after pursuing the course for two-and-half years, the question mark on the admission of the six students may affect their career and leave the six seats vacant, the court said, "Are there no higher principles involved than the argument that let no seat go vacant".

The Jaipur-based medical college admitted the six students against vacant seats for which there were no takers among the candidates who succeeded in the Rajasthan Pre-medical Test (RPMT), a common entrance exam.

These six students did not appear in the RPMT and had merely cleared the Class 12 exam.

Senior counsel Pallav Shishodia claimed that Class 12 was the eligibility criterion for admission to medical courses and not the pre-medical test.

Venugopal said the court "may be satisfied that in this case there was no 'hera pheri' (wrongdoing)".

The court said it wanted to hear the Medical Council of India's counsel before deciding the matter and adjourned the matter. IANS