SC ticks off courts for blocking MBBS seats | India News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has quashed the HC’s interim orders to keep an MBBS seat vacant in a medical college for a candidate claiming that admission was unfairly denied and said such designation would be only in exceptional circumstances can be assumed when a candidate appears at first glance to be a strong case.
This order was passed by a bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan, who were faced with a spicy situation when two colleges approached the SC saying that the HC, which had kept seats reserved for candidates, had later dismissed the petitions and since the deadline for admission had passed, the seats will now remain vacant for the entire five-year term, resulting in major losses.
Writing the judgment, Justice Viswanathan said, “Only where there is an ironclad case for the petitioner and the petitioner is certain to succeed in cases where the error of the respondent authorities is so gross as to nullify any other conclusion, can interim orders preserve debunk seats. could be made vacant.”
The court said courts certainly have the power to reserve a seat for candidates who have established a prima facie case for their admission into a university, but the court must do so with “great caution and caution.”
“In appropriate cases, even where the said exceptional criterion as set out above is met, the court shall have the right to direct the applicant to furnish a security to the concerned university institution where the seat would ultimately remain vacant or to whom the liability of the vacant seat,” the bench said, adding that if the petition is rejected, the bond could be given to the colleges to compensate their financial loss.
Even if a seat is ordered to remain vacant, the court passing the order to that effect must attempt to decide the issue before finalizing the admission counseling, the court said.
“We must not forget that while the recurring and one-off expenses for a college remain the same, a vacant seat will deprive the college of tuition fees to that extent, not just for one year but for the entire course. four, five or more years,” the report said.
Since the bench was not inclined to create an additional seat in place of the vacant seat for the next academic session, the bench asked the colleges to approach the statutory compensation committee requesting it to allow a marginal increase in compensation ​​to compensate for the loss resulting from a seat. vacant due to court order.