Admit medical students, says SC

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Thursday allowed private medical colleges in Karnataka to admit the five post-graduate medical students whom they had selected on Wednesday.The selected candidates must satisfy the conditions and the criteria prescribed by the Medical Council of India (MCI), the SC said.Senior counsel Dushyant Dave, appearing for the petitioner colleges, told the Bench that the apex court sought a list of eligible candidates to be admitted to the post-graduate private medical colleges during the last hearing and that the private colleges had selected five students out of the 41 available. Forty-four seats are still vacant, the counsel stated. He requested time till July 4 to admit the students.At this, senior counsel and former Additional Solicitor General Amarendra Sharan, appearing for the MCI, told the Bench “Let the remaining 44 seats go to the State quota. Only five came forward out of 49.State has all the infrastructure,” he pointed out.The SC had on June 24 issued notices to the Union Health Secretary and others on a petition filed by the Karnataka Private Medical Colleges Association, Dental Colleges Association and M S Ramaiah Medical College, Bangalore. The petitioners had contended that because of the delayed admission process, the association could conduct only one round of counselling and 41 seats were vacant in the member institutions.