Denied medical seat, aspirant to get Rs 20 lakh

AURANGABAD: The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court has directed the state government to withdraw the recognition and affiliation to the Godavari Foundation’s Dr Ulhas Patil Medical College in Jalgaon for flouting admission norms.

The bench ordered the college to pay Rs 20 lakh as compensation to the petitioner in the case, Tejaswini Phad, who had claimed she was denied an admission against vacant seats after the centralised admission process (CAP) rounds in 2012 even as 19 other students with lesser merit were admitted.

Phad, from Parbhani, had filed her petition in February 2013. The HC, in its ruling on Tuesday, termed the procedure adopted by the college for admitting the 19 students as illegal.

Incidentally, the 19 students have completed their course and got their degrees this year. “We will have to examine the HC’s judgment and other relevant aspects, including past rulings by the Supreme Court in such cases, before taking a call on whether to withhold or recall these degrees,” Sandeep Kulkarni, law officer of the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, told TOI on Friday.

The HC bench of Justice T V Nalawade and Justice Sunil K Kotwal also ordered a suo motu contempt proceeding against the college authorities.

The college said it would move an appeal against the HC’s decision in the SC.

Phad had contended that the college admitted the 19 students in violation of the revised admission schedule issued by Pravesh Niyantran Samiti (PNS), the state’s admissions regulatory panel. The list of these admissions was released two days before the counselling round and this had deprived many students their right to secure admission, she had stated. Among other things, she had sought cancellation of these admissions. The bench, however, said that the PNS had already taken a decision to cancel the admissions of the 19 students.

On January 11, 2013, before Phad filed her petition, the PNS had held the admissions illegal and recommended that the state government cancel them. The students continued to pursue their studies after the college filed a petition in the Aurangabad bench of HC against the PNS decision. In 2016, the college also secured an interim relief from the HC bench in Mumbai.

College registrar Pramod Bhirud claimed, “In 2015, the PNS regularised our admissions with a condition that the college deposit Rs 20 lakh per student with the state. We made the deposit and challenged the PNS’ directives before the HC bench in Mumbai and the matter is still pending . ”

Phad’s lawyer Siddheshwar Thombre said, “The state government and other authorities, including the health sciences university, had turned a blind eye to the PNS’ report seeking cancellation of these admissions. The bench has now partly allowed our petition and has dismissed the college petition against the PNS decision.