Dental students left in lurch

Govt-management pact allowed admission of 1,128 students superseding varsity rules

The RGUHS has shot off a letter directing the dental colleges to ‘discharge’ these students as they don’t meet the eligibility criteria prescribed by the University and the Dental Council of India (DCI).

According to information available with the RGUHS, of the total 2,308 admissions made in 37 colleges across the State, admissions of 1,128 students have been rejected and only 1,180 have been approved.

RGUHS Vice-Chancellor Dr Ramanand Shetty said he can’t approve the admissions which are in violation of the DCI rules. He said: “These students have not appeared for CET or Comed-K and they have been admitted by the colleges. As per the DCI rules, students can’t be admitted directly.”

Section II (2) of the BDS Course Regulations 2007 says that in any state where more than one board conducts the qualifying examination — the CBSE, ICSE and state board in the case of Karnataka — “a competitive entrance examination should be held, so as to achieve a uniform evaluation as there may be variation of standards at qualifying examinations conducted by different agencies.”

Agreement

The colleges admitted the students superseding the DCI rules following a consensual agreement signed between the State government and the private engineering, medical and dental colleges on March 30 this year. The consensual agreement has a clause which allows colleges to fill the seats which are not filled through CET and Comed-K, based on the candidates’ marks scored in Class XII (PU) alone.

“If approved by the Supreme Court, the agreement supersedes both the university and DCI regulations,” Shetty said.

Legal hassle

However, the agreement has not been placed before the Supreme Court even after months, due to certain complications arising out of a High Court verdict on striking out differential fee structure in the same college.

Minister for Higher Education V S Acharya last week announced that the agreement would be placed before the apex court at the earliest.

However, when Deccan Herald contacted Advocate General Ashok Harnahalli, he said the matter would come up before the Supreme Court after holding a few more meetings with the stakeholders.