Updated on: Tuesday, August 04, 2009
Madurai:The Madras High Court Bench has stayed the order passed by the MCI on July 6 to fill 57 MBBS seats under government quota and 43 under management quota
Justice M. Sathyanarayanan granted the interim stay for four weeks on a writ petition filed by the college chairman of Sree Mookambika Institute of Medical Sciences in Kanyakumari district.
The Judge also ordered notices to the Union Health and Family Welfare Secretary, MCI(Medical Council of India), State government, Director of Medical Education and Dr. M.G.R. Medical University, returnable within a month.
According to petitioner's counsel, the college established in 2006 was an unaided minority educational institution with an admission capacity of 100 students per year. It had entered into an agreement with the State to apportion 50 per cent of its seats to the government.
In academic year 2008-09, only 43 students from the government quota chose to join the college. Hence, the management filled the rest of the seven seats on the basis of a merit list prepared by the Tamil Nadu Private Professional Colleges Association.
The fee, however, was collected only at the rate fixed for government quota candidates.Filling such lapsed seats had been in practice over the years with the cognition of the State government and the Director of Medical Education.
The MCI, to make up for those seven seats, had erroneously issued an order, increasing the government quota for the current academic year, counsel said, and sought quashing of the order.