November 24, 2017:

SC sternly admonished a Allahabad High Court Bench for permitting the Admissions.

In the an ongoing investigation into a judicial nexus in illegal admissions medical college, the Supreme Court has directed a Lucknow-based Medical College on Thursday to pay Rs 10 lakh each to 150 students as compensation.

Apex Court also sternly admonished a bench of the Allahabad high court for permitting the admissions.

SC asked the college to refund the admission fee paid by the students and also slapped a fine of Rs 25 lakh to be deposited with the SC registry.

Bench also barred the college from admitting further students for the next academic year of 2018-19.

Without mincing words while pulling up the division bench of the Allahabad HC for permitting the institute to admit students in violation of its order, a Full Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud said it was a clear case of "judicial indiscipline and impropriety".

Medical Council of India (MCI) represented by Senior advocate Vikas Singh and lawyer Gaurav Sharma, told the bench that the HC allowed admissions even though it was found that the college didn't have formal permission from the Centre and even failed to consider that the college suffered from deficiencies in infrastructure, clinical material and faculty.

Furthermore, the HC ignored the earlier SC order prohibiting any interim order in this regard.

The apex court observed that the HC bench had virtually overruled the SC order while transgressing all rules and regulations.

Terming it to be most unfortunate, which may cause [an] institutional problem, the bench said and hinted that it may handle andaddress the issue on the administrative side.

Even though Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for the Medical college, pleaded that the institution should not be punished for the wrong verdict of the High Court but the SC bench remained firm.

Recently a bench of the Allahabad HC was in the news after the CBI arrested a retired HC judge of the Orissa HC, I M Quddusi, for conspiring to facilitate a favourable order for a Medical College run by Prasad Education Trust — also a Lucknow-based institution.

Justice Quddusi had earlier served in the Allahabad HC Bench.

In this scenario the SC's order assumes more significance in view of recent allegations of a middlemen-judges nexus for getting favourable judgments in cases of medical admissions.

The CBI arrested Justice Quddusi and five other accused for allegedly conspiring to overcome an MCI order stopping a private medical college from MBBS admissions. The CBI case had exposed the deep rot and corruption in medical education.

Justice Quddusi has even been accused by CBI of offering assistance in the form of "legal guidance" to the private medical college and even promising suitable orders from the apex court.

Police has also lodged an FIR against two IAS officers serving in Puducherry namely former health secretary B R Babu and Narendra Kumar, who were in a committee on admissions to medical colleges — for denying admissions to deserving students on Merit and selling the Medical seats to others at "exorbitant" rates.

Quashing the admission, the SC bench said the college must compensate Students for playing with their careers and "polluting young minds" by admitting them in clear violation of the law.

In this case itself, the court had earlier passed a specific order restraining the HC from passing any interim order pertaining to the academic year 2017-18.

But still the HC, however, went ahead and passed an order allowing the college to admit students for the current session to the SC's ire.

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