No sympathy for students entering medical college through backdoor: SC

The Supreme Court has said that it could not show sympathy to students who entered a medical college through backdoor.

A bench comprising justices L. Nageswara Rao, B.R. Gavai, and Krishna Murari junked the review petition by a group of students, against its July 20, 2020, judgment, which dismissed a plea by Glocal Medical College.

Last year, the top court had upheld the Medical Council of India's decision to discharge 67 MBBS students, after it was found that they secured admission through private counselling, in the backdrop of Uttar Pradesh government's notification for common counselling. "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 backdoor", said the bench.

The review petitioners were admitted in the first year of MBBS course for academic session 2016-2017 by the medical college, which was affiliated to the Glocal University, a deemed University. The MBBS students, seeking review of the order, claimed they had cleared the NEET and admitted to the course by the medical college, and they have also claimed to have cleared first- and second-year examinations.

The counsel for the Uttar Pradesh government and Medical Council of India (MCI) contended that their admission is the result of collusion between the Glocal Medical College and the review petitioners. The counsel emphasized that petitioners were aware that private counselling was not permissible in law. "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", said the bench, adding that it is not possible to consider cases of the students sympathetically.

The bench noted that notification issued by Uttar Pradesh on the basis of the law laid down by this court clearly provided that admissions were to be done only through the centralized admission process. The top court said though it has all sympathies with students, but it will not be in a position to do anything to protect the admissions, which were done in a patently illegal manner.

The bench also expressed surprise that students cleared the second year of examination, despite the fact that MCI had discharged the students vide on January 27, 2017.