The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : `Ensure proper admission process in dental college'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 27, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

`Ensure proper admission process in dental college'

Staff Reporter

HIGH COURTROUND-UP Bangalore Institute of Dental Sciences directed to admit petitioner students

BANGALORE: The Karnataka High Court on Monday directed the Government and its authorities to immediately conduct a proper, fair and transparent process of admission of students to postgraduate courses in a private dental college in Bangalore.

In its interim order, the court allowed a petition by K.S.R. Prasad, a graduate of dental sciences, and directed the college, Bangalore Institute of Dental Sciences (BIDS), to admit the petitioner students.

It said the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) should take note of the court directions and act accordingly.

The university was told not to approve any admissions that violated the Supreme Court directions in the P.A. Inamdar case.

Justice D.V. Shylendra Kumar passed these orders after Dr. Prasad and others complained that the institutions affiliated to the Karnataka Religious and Linguistic Minority Private Colleges Association had not allotted seats in professional colleges on merit.

The students said they were all studying dental sciences and that they had appeared for the common entrance test conducted by the association for admission to postgraduate courses in dentistry.

The association had issued a notification on January 20, 2006, calling for applications to postgraduate seats and an entrance test was held on February 19.

The merit list of candidates was announced on February 27.

The students alleged that some of the colleges, including BIDS, had not followed a fair and transparent admission process. Students who had not appeared for the entrance test were given seats.

They said they were denied seats though they had obtained good marks. Dr. Prasad claimed that when he approached a college for a seat, he was asked to pay Rs. 21 lakh.

He said there was no centralised counselling for admission to postgraduate courses. Dr. Prasad and other students approached the Committee for Overseeing Admissions of Students to Private Professional Colleges.

The committee had accepted the application by the students and directed the colleges to conduct counselling afresh.

The judge said when the committee had found that the admission process as not fair and transparent, "there cannot be any escape for the institution from this course of action."

He said if institutions overreached the requirements as set out by the Supreme Court, admissions made by them could be "disapproved" by the authority or any other agency empowered to take action. He ordered notices to the Government and other respondents and adjourned the matter to June 27.

Directive

A Division Bench, comprising Justice B. Padmaraj and Justice S. Abdul Nazeer, on Monday directed the Government to appoint a committee to oversee the administration of the Kollur Mookambika Temple.

The Bench allowed an interlocutory application and observed that only those interested in the welfare of the temple should be appointed to it.

It allowed Principal Revenue Secretary, Jamdar, to continue as the inquiry officer to look into alleged irregularities in the management of the temple funds.

It modified an earlier interim order and asked the Government to file a compliance report on the court directions.

Dropped

A Division Bench, comprising Justice H.L. Dattu and Justice Ananda, on Monday dropped a contempt proceeding against a former Bangalore Mahanagara Palike Commissioner.

A firm in Bangalore had filed the contempt case against the then BMP Commissioner Jyotiramalingam, for "not obeying" court order. The petitioner had said that a single judge and Division Bench had allowed its plea that a part of land in Guttepalya, Siddapura near Jayanagar, belonged to it.

The petitioner said the BMP had failed to register the khata in its name despite the court order.

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