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2020 Supreme(Ker) 576
IN THE HIGH COURT OF KERALA AT ERNAKULAM
S.MANIKUMAR, SHAJI P.CHALY, JJ.
The Chairman, Sr Educational And Charitable Trust – Appellant
Versus
Union Of India – Respondent
[W.A No. 583 of 2020, W.P.(C) Nos. 26, 196, 503, 1147, 1506, 2256, 2259, 2281, 3022, 3065, 3676, 8148, 9525, 10436, 11602 & 11640 of 2020]
Decided on : 08-07-2020
Advocate Appeared:
For the Appellant : Kurian George Kannanthanam (Sr.) Sri.P.M.Saneer, Sri Tony George Kannanthanam Alex George, Thomas George
For the Respondent: Sri.Titus Mani Vettom, Sri. P. Vijayakumar, Sri. Jagadeesh Lakshman, Sri. M.A. Asif, Sri. P. Sreekumar, Sri. C. Unnikrishnan, Sri. T.B. Hood, Adv.
IMPORTANT POINT
The Medical Council of India, the State Government as well as the University of Health Sciences that the letter of permission was never renewed as is insisted upon in Ext.P2-Provisions of the Act, 1956, Regulations, 1999--It cannot be said that the request made by the Government of India to the State Government to withdraw the essentiality certificate issued to the college is bad or illegal in any manner.
Headnote:
Medical Council of India (Establishment of Medical College) Regulations, 1999- Regulation 2, Regulation 2 ;;The Indian Medical Council Act, 1956- Section 10A- The essentiality certificate and the affiliation of the university has no independent existence detached from the letter of previous permission, which is the exclusive domain of the Government of India-Being a medical profession, the students are not entitled to get any leniency, if they have not attended the classes, clinical and practical and have not undertaken the curriculum in terms of the Act, 1956 and the Regulation, 1999, the stand adopted by the University cannot be said to be illegal or arbitrary.
Statement of facts:
The writ petitions captioned above are filed by the students of SR Medical College and Research Centre, Thiruvananthapuram basically seeking a direction to the Kerala University of Health Sciences, Thrissur to permit the petitioners to write the respective semester/professional MBBS examinations, declare the results, pursue further studies etc, and in some challenging the afore orders also.
Finding of the court:
In the course curriculum for MBBS, the stress is given to the clinical training in the 6th and 7th semesters and hence a well equipped hospital is necessary-Clinical materials were lacking for imparting the training during the said period for the 6th semester students in the appellant college-The stand adopted by the Kerala University of Health Sciences in respect of the continuance of the students as quoted above may be the only viable and feasible option and therefore, it has to be left to the wisdom of the university.
Result:
W.A. No. 583 of 2020 is dismissed.
W.P.(C) Nos. 26, 196, 503, 1147, 2256, 2259, 2281, 3022, 3065, 3676, 8148, 11602 and 11640, of 2020 are disposed of
W.P.(C) No. 9525 of 2020 allowed
W.P. (C) No. 1506 of 2020 is partly allowed
JUDGMENT :
SHAJI P. CHALY, J
The above writ appeal is filed by the writ petitioner in W.P.(C) No. 236 of 2020 challenging the judgment of the learned single Judge dated 05.03.2020 dismissing the writ petition.
2. The challenge in the writ petition was to Ext.P20 order, whereby it has been decided by the Government of India to request the Government of Kerala to withdraw/cancel the essentiality certificate (EC) issued by it to the SR Medical College and Research Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, the appellant herein, to establish a medical college, and also directing to send a detailed proposal for shifting the students of the appellant college to other private self financing medical colleges in the State of Kerala, and Ext. P21(a) consequential order passed by the State Government dated 05.01.2020 withdrawing the essentiality certificate dated 07.07.2016 issued to the appellant with immediate effect and steps initiated to prepare a concrete proposal for shifting the students to other private medical colleges within the State of Kerala and forward it to the Board of Governors of the Medical Council of India.
3. The writ petitions captioned above are filed by the students of SR Medical College and Research Centre, Thiruvananthapuram basically seeking a direction to the Kerala University of Health Sciences, Thrissur to permit the petitioners to write the respective semester/professional MBBS examinations, declare the results, pursue further studies etc, and in some challenging the afore orders also.
4. On submission made by the learned senior counsel appearing for the appellant Medical College, we found that the appeal as well as the writ petitions are materially connected, and the disposal of the writ appeal would have a bearing and impact on the writ petitions, hence we withdrew the writ petitions from the files of the learned single Judge and heard them together on agreement in order to avoid any complex situations. We propose to consider the writ appeal and the writ petitions by narrating the facts separately.
5. The case of the appellant Medical College has a chequered history. The appellant had applied for establishing a Medical College during 2016 and the classes for the first batch of students for the MBBS course commenced during the academic year 2016-2017. The establishment of a Medical College is governed by Section 10A of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 (hereinafter called 'the Act, 1956'), which stipulates that no person shall establish a medical college without the previous permission of the Central Government by which the Central Government has to issue a letter of permission (LOP). The qualifying criteria is mentioned in Regulation 2 of the Medical Council of India (Establishment of Medical College) Regulations, 1999 (hereinafter called 'Regulations, 1999'), and Regulation 2(3) specifies that there should be an essentiality certificate from the State Government concerned. Further, Regulation 2(5) stipulates that the applicant should have a hospital of not less than 300 beds with necessary infrastructural facilities capable of being developed into a teaching institution. According to the appellant, permission was applied for to the Government of India to establish a Medical College along with the essentiality certificate issued by the State Government dated 07.07.2016. But, fact remains, the Board of Governors of the Medical Council of India did not recommend grant of permission to establish the College due to the negative report on the basis of the inspection conducted in the College. However, the appellant College, thereupon, approached Justice Lodha Committee, a committee appointed by the Apex Court to oversee the functioning of the Medical Council of India, and by virtue of the favourable orders passed by the said committee, it secured letter of permission from the Government of India and established the college
