Kerala   

Supreme Court allows six private medical colleges to make admissions

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed a judgment of the Kerala High Court invalidating an entrance test conducted by the Kerala Private Medical College Managements Association and restraining the association from making admissions on the basis of the test.

A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice J.M. Panchal, after hearing senior counsel Harish Salve for the association, senior counsel T.L. Viswanatha Iyer and counsel P.V. Dinesh for the State and counsel for the student (petitioner before the High Court), permitted admissions on the basis of the entrance test conducted by the association. Mr. Salve argued that the petitioner before the High Court had already been admitted to another college. Mr. Viswanatha Iyer said that unless the judgment was stayed it would not be possible to proceed with the admissions.

When counsel for the student opposed the stay, the Chief Justice told him that “we can’t put on peril admissions of over 200 students at the instance of one student. If you {student} have any grievance, you go to the admissions committee and make your representation.”

Acting on a writ petition, the High Court had invalidated the entrance test on the ground that the time schedule fixed by the apex court in the Mridhul Dhar case was not followed. The High Court had directed the association to admit students on the basis of a common entrance test conducted by the Commissioner of Entrance Examinations (CEE).

The association, with six medical colleges as members, in its special leave petition said that it had entered into an agreement with the government to provide 50 per cent of the seats to be filled from the rank list of the CEE and collect only Rs.45,000 as fee for these students as against Rs.2.60 lakh for all seats permitted by the Admission Supervisory Committee (ASC).

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