IMPORTANT POINT
Admission to MBBS Course – Denial of permission by Board of Governors in supersession of Medical Council of India owing to gross deficiencies of infrastructure, clinical material, teaching faculty and other physical facilities, is justified.

JUDGMENT :

L. NAGESWARA RAO, J.

1. The Appellants requested the Medical Council of India for permission to admit 150 students in MBBS course for the academic year 2019-2020. The Board of Governors in supersession of Medical Council of India rejected the request on 21.05.2019. The Appellants filed a Writ Petition in the High Court of Delhi questioning the correctness of the proceeding dated 21.05.2019. The High Court dismissed the Writ Petition by its judgment dated 09.12.2020. This Appeal is filed challenging the said judgment.

2. The first Respondent granted letter of permission to the first Appellant-College on 30.06.2011 for intake of 150 students in the MBBS course for the academic year 2011-2012. As the inspections carried out by the assessors of the Medical Council of India revealed gross deficiencies of the teaching faculty, clinical material and the other physical facilities in the medical college, the Board of Governors recommended that the renewal of permission should not be granted to the first Appellant-College for the academic years 2012-2013 and 2013-2014. The Writ Petition filed by the first Appellant-College was dismissed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court pursuant to which no admission could be made for the academic years 2012-2013 and 2013-2014.

3. The first Appellant-College sought renewal of permission for the academic year 2014-2015. In view of the deficiencies in teaching faculty, clinical material and the other physical facilities in the college, recommendation was made by the Executive Committee of the Medical Council of India not to renew the permission for the academic year 2014-2015 which was accepted by the first Respondent. The first Respondent informed the Appellant-College on 15.07.2014 that the request for renewal of permission for admitting 150 medical students for the academic year 2014-2015 was rejected.

4. Orders were issued by this Court on 18.09.2014 and 20.09.2014 in Writ Petition (C) No.469 of 2014 titled as “Hind Charitable Trust Shekhar Hospital Private Limited v. Union of India & Ors.” by which private medical colleges whose application for renewal of permission was disapproved were permitted to make admissions, subject to the undertaking by the President/Chairman and Secretary of the Medical College that there is no deficiency existing in the medical college. This Court held that if the undertaking was found to be incorrect at the time of next physical inspection of the medical college, the bank guarantee of Rupees Ten Crores, furnished by the medical college shall be forfeited by way of penalty. The second Appellant-College submitted an undertaking on 28.09.2014 that there is no deficiency existing in the facilities and that in the event of any deficiency being found in the inspection, the bank guarantee of Rs.9.5 Crores shall be forfeited. Consequent upon the undertaking, the first Appellant-College was permitted to admit students for the academic year 2014-2015.

5. Renewal of permission for admission of 150 students for the academic year 2015-2016 was rejected after an inspection was conducted and it was found that there were gross deficiencies of infrastructure, clinical material, teaching faculty and other physical facilities. The first Respondent accepted the recommendations of the Medical Council of India and rejected the request of the Appellant College to grant renewal of permission for admissions for the academic year 2015-2016 by its letter dated 15.06.2015.

6. On 16.12.2015 physical assessment for grant of recognition was carried out. Another physical assessment was held on 25/26th February, 2016 as there were allegations against the first Appellant-College relating to arranging fake faculty doctors, residents, patients etc. only for the purpose of Medical Council of India’s assessment. It was decided by the Medical Council of India to conduct another surprise physical inspection. In the surprise inspection which was conducted on 16.03.2016, deficiencies were found on the basi