Regulations governing medical admissions require adherence to common counselling processes; failure to consider due process and fair opportunity to institutions harms student rights.

ORDER :

Assailing the impugned proceedings of the first respondent/MCI in No.MCI-34(MC-UG)/2017-18/155462 dated 21.11.2017, the petitioner/Sri Venkateswara Medical College Hospital & Research Centre, Puducherry has come forward with the present Writ Petition in W.P.No.11995 of 2018.

2. Challenging the impugned order passed by the second respondent/MCI vide No.MCI-34(MC-UG)/2017-18/155447 dated 21.11.2017 and the consequential orders passed by the fourth respondent/Government of Puducherry vide No.2592/Health/115/2017-18/343, dated 06.12.2017; impugned order by the seventh respondent/Pondicherry University vide No.PU/AW- 2/7/2017-18/363 dated 18.01.2018 and Ref. No.PU/Aca- 7/Recog/SMVMC&H/2017-18/183 and consequently to direct the respondents 1 to 7 herein to approve/recognize the admission of those 41 students, who were discharged by the impugned order of the second respondent/MCI dated 21.11.2017, admitted in the first year MBBS Course under the Management Quota for the academic year 2017-18 in the petitioner's institution, enabling to pursue their course and appear for the exams in future, the petition in W.P.No.12629 of 2018 has been preferred by the petitioner/institution/Shri Manakula Vinayagar Medical College and Hospital, Puducherry.

3. The impugned proceedings of the first respondent/MCI in No.MCI-34(MC-UG)/2017-18/155462 dated 21.11.2017, is put under challenge, in W.P.No.12506 of 2018 filed by the petitioners herein/students of the sixth respondent college/Sri Venkateswara Medical College Hospital & Research Centre, Puducherry.

4. Heard the learned counsels for the respective parties in all the Writ Petitions.

5. Since the issue involved in these Writ Petitions are one and the same, the Writ Petitions are taken up and heard together and disposed of, by way of a common order.

6. Facts of the Case:-

6.1.a) The short facts which leads to the filing of the present petition as averred in the affidavit of the petitioner in W.P.No.11995 of 2018, is as follows:-

The petitioner is a linguistic minority educational institution and the present case pertains to admissions of students for MBBS for the academic year 2017-18. The fourth respondent/CENTAC conducted pre-counselling, where in the first counselling held on 18.08.2017 no candidates were allotted and in the second counselling held on 19.08.2017, 3 candidates were allotted however only one candidate joined the petitioner college. In the mop up counselling conducted on 28.08.2017, 92 candidates were allotted, out of which only 54 candidates joined the petitioner college in which 54, 2 were NRI candidates. On 24.08.2017, the petitioner requested the first respondent/MCI to permit them to fill up the vacant seats after mop- up counselling from the NEET qualified candidates. Due to which, the fourth respondent/CENTAC sent a list of students in the ratio 1:10. In this backdrop, the petitioner did not have any response from the students in the aforesaid ratio and hence, addressed a letter dated 30.08.2017 to the third respondent to permit them to call candidates from All India Basis, who secured NEET marks in the range of 355 to 107 to fill up the vacancies. Based on the order of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in SLP No.30336/2016 dated 28.08.2017, the petitioner also made a representation on 31.08.2017 as no candidates reported them for admission to the third respondent to fill up from the NEET qualified candidates listed in the fourth respondent/CENTAC web-site and in this respect, he also filed a petition in W.P.No.23810 of 2017 which has been closed on the ground that the list had already been released by the second respondent/Go