A state government cannot withdraw essentiality certificate issued for establishing medical colleges unless it is proved to have been obtained by fraud or reasons for issuing it has disappeared, the Supreme Court has held.
A bench of Justices S A Bobde and L Nageswara Rao said the field of medical education was occupied by a parliamentary law, the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956, and a state law even if already existing would have no efficacy. As a consequence, the executive power of the state under Article 162 cannot be invoked.
“The power to permit the establishment of a medical college is thus conferred on the central government by the IMC Act...One of the criteria is that the person who is desirous of establishing a medical college should obtain an essentiality certificate that the state government/union territory administration have no objection for it,” the bench said.
The top court explained the legal position while quashing withdrawal of essentiality certificate on November 1, 2017, issued by the Punjab government to Chintpurni Medical College at Pathankot, owned by BJP MP Swaran Salaria.
The Punjab government ordered for shifting of 249 MBBS students at the college to three government medical colleges in Amritsar, Patiala and Faridkot.
On a writ petition filed by the college, the court said the state government has not been conferred any power to withdraw such a certificate.
State's onus
Importantly, the state government is required to certify that if the applicant fails to create infrastructure for the medical college as per the MCI norms and fresh admissions are stopped by the central government, the state government shall take over the responsibility of those students already admitted in the college with the permission of the central government, the court added.
“The essentiality certificate thus certifies that having regard to specified factors, the opening of the proposed college is essential in the state, in public interest,” the court said.
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