Student can be barred from admission for wasting seat: HC

A bench of justices Rajiv Sahai Endlaw and G P Mittal upheld the decision of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University refusing to induct a candidate in Post Graduate in Medicine on the ground that he had dropped out in the previous academic year.

The court dismissed the plea of Dr Muveen Kumar who had challenged the University's decision to debar him from taking admission. His plea was earlier dismissed by a single judge bench order of the high court. The single judge had said "such an embargo is in larger public interest so that the precious seat in the Post Graduate Medical Course does not go waste."

Kumar had opted out of the PG course in the field of ENT, six months after taking admission as he wanted to pursue his studies in some other stream. He re-appeared for the entrance test and qualified for the same but the University refused to induct him.

Dismissing his plea the court said "though such a restriction is undoubtedly harsh it cannot be viewed in isolation as through this restriction a greater objective in the larger public interest, to see that the precious medical seat does not go waste, is being achieved."

"Substantial public funds are spent for each seat in a professional course and squandering of any seat not only deprives and defeats the valuable right of the student next in queue but also results in large public money spent by the institution in the creation of such a seat going down the drain," it added.

Upholding the single bench's order, the division bench said "if the stream offered to him was not acceptable, he ought not to have accepted the same, in which case it would have been offered to the next willing meritorious candidate."