Supreme Court: In a case where a Medical College illegally denied admission to a candidate to Post-Graduate Medical Specialty course of MS for the academic year 2020-2021, the bench of L. Nageswara Rao* and Hemant Gupta, JJ has directed the College to pay a compensation of Rs. 10 lakhs to the candidate and to reserve a seat for her for the next academic year.
SC directs a Medical College to pay 10 lakhs compensation to a candidate for illegally denying her admission
Brief Background
Respondent was given provisional admission a seat in Kamineni Academy of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Hyderabad under Management quota. According to the provisional allotment order, Respondent No.1 was required to report before the Principal of the Medical College by 04:00 PM on 30.07.2020. In case of failure to report within the prescribed time, the provisional selection shall be automatically cancelled.
According to the Respondent, in spite of her approaching Medical College along with her father on 29.07.2020 and 30.07.2020 for submission of certificates and payment of tuition fees as well as college fees, the admission was not completed. On 30.07.2020, the last date for admission into PG Medical Courses was extended till 30.08.2020. She then made an attempt to meet the Chairman of the Medical College on 07.08.2020 but was not permitted to meet the Chairman.
Subsequently, another candidate who was 2000 ranks below the Respondent was granted admission.
The High Court for Telangana directed the National Medical Commission/ Medical Council of India to create or sanction one seat in MS (General Surgery) for the Respondent and further directed the Medical College to grant her admission to the in MS (General Surgery) course.
Analysis
Contradictory stands by the Medical College
A perusal of the counter affidavit filed by the Medical College showed contradiction in the pleadings. On one hand, it is stated that Respondent and her father did not approach the College either on 29.07.2020 or 30.07.2020 for the purpose of admission. However, in it’s counter the Medical College has also stated Respondent had approached the College on 29.07.2020 to enquire about the admission procedure and the requisite fee.
The Court, hence, noticed that there was no reason to believe that Respondent did not approach the Medical College for admission, especially after paying the University Fee on 29.07.2020.
Admission to a candidate 2000 rank below the Respondent
The last date for admission to the PG Medical Courses for the academic year 2020-2021 was extended from 30.07.2020 to 30.08.2020. Another candidate, who is 2000 ranks below the Respondent, was granted admission on 11.08.2020 to the seat which was provisionally allotted to Respondent.
The Court noticed that there was nothing on record to show that the Medical College followed the procedure prescribed by the Regulations for filling up the seat due to non-joining. As the last date for admission has been extended beyond 30.07.2020, there was sufficient time for the Medical College to inform the Respondent to come and join in the seat that was allotted to her provisionally. In case of refusal by Respondent to join, it was incumbent upon the Medical College to have followed the merit list and offered the seat to doctors who were immediately ranked below the Respondent.
“The manner in which Respondent No.2-College acted in depriving admission to Respondent No.1 and giving admission to Respondent No.5 on 11.08.2020 is deplorable. The Managements of the Medical Colleges are not expected to indulge in such illegalities in making admissions to Medical Courses.”
High Court’s direction for creation of a seat
The Court reiterated that directions cannot be issued for increasing annual intake capacity and to create seats. The annual intake capacity is fixed by the Medical Council of India (now National Medical Commission) which has to be strictly adhered. Admissions to Medical Colleges cannot be permitted to be made beyond the sanctioned annual intake capacity of a medical college.
A balancing act of granting relief to both the candidates
The Court found itself in a catch 22 situation where it could neither direct the Medical College to grant admission to the Respondent for this academic year as the last date for admissions was 30.08.2020, nor could it cancel the admission of the other candidate who was allotted the Respondent’s seat as he might not have known about the denial of admission to Respondent illegally.
Disapproving the practice of the Medical College in picking up students for granting admission without following the merit list, the Court refrained from disturbing the admission granted to the other candidate.
However, considering that the Respondent has lost one precious academic year for no fault of hers, the Court directed that
- she has to be compensated with Rs.10 Lakhs to be paid by the Medical College within a period of four weeks from the date of the decision.
- one seat in MS (General Surgery) course from the Management Quota of the Medical College for the next academic year (2021-22) shall be granted to her.
[National Medical Commission v. Mothukuru Sriyah Koumudi, 2020 SCC OnLine SC 992, decided on 07.12.2020]
*Justice L. Nageswara Rao has penned this judgment
