The court upheld the government's decision to retain administrative oversight of Tripura Medical College through a hybrid model involving a society and government representation, emphasizing that it was not appropriate for the court to determine the correctness of a policy decision taken by the State government.

ORDER :

1. Leave granted.

2. In an earlier public interest litigation initiated by the appellant, a Division Bench of the High Court of Tripura, by its judgment dated 30 April 2015, directed the State government to take an administrative decision within a period of three months with respect to the Tripura Medical College and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Memorial Teaching Hospital (Tripura Medical College). The High Court directed the State government to either reconstitute the managing committee of the Tripura Medical College to ensure that the actual administrative control lies in the hands of the Society and not the government, or alternatively, retain control “with all consequences.”

3. The State, pursuant to the judgment of the High Court, reconstituted the Society for the Tripura Medical College. The Society has its own recruitment rules and has formulated a pay structure.

4. A fresh writ petition was filed before the High Court in public interest by the same petitioner who had moved the earlier proceedings. The grievance of the petitioner was that despite the earlier directions nothing had changed. In consequence, he sought to challenge the admission procedure and the fees charged from the students, contending that these should be at par with other government medical colleges in the North East. The writ petition was dismissed by a Division Bench of the High Court on 24 June 2016, which has given rise to the present appeal.

5. In response to the proceedings, a counter affidavit has been filed on behalf of the second and the fifth respondents, namely, the Society and the Principal of the Tripura Medical College. The affidavit records that pursuant to the directions of the High Court, the constitution of the Society was recast. Though there are government nominees, it has been stated that the affairs of the Society are also run by non-governmental nominees and the representation of the government is to ensure that the finances which are made available are duly channelized. Moreover, it has been submitted that:

(i) Societies formed or promoted by the Central or the State government are not necessarily government undertakings.

(ii) The objective of the State government is to ensure transparent management of the medical colleges with a view to provide medical education and medical facilities to the people of Tripura.

(iii) The colleges are run on a self-sustaining model and depend on the revenue generated from tuition fees and the fees collected against medical services.

(iv) The government has taken a policy decision not to transform the Tripura Medical College into a State-run medical college. Finances released by the government from time to time have been treated as an interest free loan which will be re-paid over a period of fifteen years.

6. Initially, the affairs of the Tripura Medical College were being looked after by an NGO called “Global Educational Net” pursuant to an agreement dated 7 October 2004. Tripura Medical College secured permission from the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to admit its first batch of 100 students in 2006-07. While permission was granted for the second batch, no permission was granted during 2008-09 due to a deficiency in infrastructure. In April 2009, the NGO which was entrusted with the running of the Tripura Medical College expressed its inability to do so. In order to safeguard the interest of the 200 students who were pursuing their education, the State government constituted a society chaired by the Principal Secretary in the Health and Family Welfare Department on 22 May 2009.

7. The first writ petition was instituted in the form of a PIL by the appellant which resulted in the order of the High Court dated 30 April 2015. It needs to be emphasized that the High Court did not issue a mandamus to the State government to run the Tripura Medical College as a government institution. Such a direction was correctly not issued by the High Court as it pertains to the realm of policy. Whether the State go