SC asks for advance approval of foreign MBBS candidates

A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Hemant Gupta said the approval by the Union government should be communicated every year before August 15, 15 days in advance

The Supreme Court has directed the Union government to inform candidates from Northeastern states and foreign countries 15 days in advance about its approval for admission of sponsored candidates for the MBBS course in government medical colleges in order to avid last-minute rush and inconvenience to them.

A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Hemant Gupta said the approval by the Union government should be communicated every year before August 15.

This year, particulars of allotment to various government medical colleges in the country were finalised on August 16. Following the nomination made by the students from the North-Eastern states and from Iran, Nepal and Bhutan, the Ministry of External Affairs had on August 30 gave its consent for admission to the nominated students.

Notably, the top court had in case of 'Ashish Ranjan Vs Union of India' (2015) had affixed August 31 as the last date for admission to the MBBS course in medical colleges in the country.

A certain number of seats are allotted from the central pool to the students of various countries, northeastern states and Union Territories for admissions to the first year MBBS course in government medical colleges.

On a writ petition filed by the candidates led by Arefeh Chegeni against denial of admission, the top court relaxed the deadline of August 31 for admission to the MBBS course for them. Harried students who rushed to the colleges on September 1 and 2 were denied admission in view of the last date of August 31 fixed by the Supreme Court.

The court said, “No fault can be found on the part of students for not reporting before the last date. They have rushed immediately after they were informed about the admission.”

Advocate Dushyant Parashar, appearing for AIIMS, Delhi submitted that the institute could not have provided admission in view of the expiry of August 31 deadline.

The court, however, directed all the candidates should be granted admission by October 7, if they were found as eligible.

The bench noted that in a similar situation that arose last year, the court had to come to the rescue of the students who were intimated about their admission in the medical colleges in the eleventh hour. “To avoid inconvenience being caused to the students, the Union government should intimate them 15 days in advance,” the bench said.