An ad-hoc committee appointed by the Supreme Court to run the affairs of the Medical Council of India has alleged the Centre bypassed it and gave recognition to certain medical colleges in Andhra Pradesh.
A bench comprising Justice M B Shah and Justice A R Lakshmanan on Monday directed the Union government to file its response to the allegations of the ad-hoc committee and requested Attorney General Soli J Sorabjee, Amicus Curiae Harish Salve and senior advocate K K Venugopal, who appeared for MCI, to sit together and resolve the controversy.
The ad-hoc committee is comprised of eminent doctors N Rangabashyam of Chennai, P N Tandon of New Delhi, S K Bhansali of Mumbai and S Kantha of Bangalore.
The application moved through Salve, alleged the MCI was called upon to examine the application by the Andhra medical colleges, set up by the state government, for increase in their intake capacity of students.
"The ad-hoc committee along with the Executive Committee of the MCI did not find it appropriate to recommend the grant of such permission as it found substantial shortcomings in the infrastructure and staffing," the application said.
The central government forwarded compliance reports by the Andhra medical colleges to MCI on August 8 and requested MCI to undertake fresh inspection of the colleges. This request was received on August 11 by MCI.
Five days later, however, the Union government granted permission to these colleges 'as one time measure' for admission of fresh batches of students without awaiting the recommendations of the MCI, which was mandatory under the law.
"This permission, granted in this tearing hurry without even awaiting an inspection by the MCI, has to be viewed in the backdrop of the admitted fact that in the academic year 2002-03, these government colleges had been admitting students even without receiving the recommendations/permissions from the central government," the ad hoc committee said
"Strangely enough, the government permission granted on August 16 makes the permission conditional on the state government ensuring compliance with the requirements of the MCI and sorting out the pending issue relating to the previous year," it said.
"Thus, the colleges are free to admit students for the present, but if thereafter they are found non-compliant with the MCI regulations, these students would be left in the lurch, having been admitted into colleges which are unrecognised or unauthorised," the committee said.
The MCI committee said that if the government has decided to deal with recognition of medical education at its own level, then the MCI has no role and the ad hoc committee could be dispensed with.
