Supreme Court orders medical college in Telangana to pay Rs. 10 lakh compensation for illegally denying admission to candidate

The Supreme Court on Monday ordered a medical college in Telangana to pay compensation of Rs. 10 lakh to a MS Surgery course aspirant for illegally denying her admission to the college (National Medical Commission v. Mothukuru Sriyah Koumudi). .A Division Bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Hemant Gupta also ordered the college to grant admission to the candidate for the next academic year since the last date of admission for the current academic year had expired. "Respondent No.1 has lost one precious academic year for no fault of hers for which she has to be compensated by way of an amount of Rs.10 Lakhs to be paid by Respondent No.2 College within a period of four weeks from today," the Court ordered.The judgment came in an appeal filed by the National Medical Commission against a judgment of the Telangana High Court which had ordered the National Medical Commission (earlier Medical Council of India) to create or sanction one seat to enable the Respondent no. 1 to get admission. .The Respondent no. 1, Mothukuru Sriyah Koumudi had applied for postgraduate course in surgery at the Kamineni Academy of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Hyderabad (Respondent no. 2) after securing a rank in National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), 2020..After being granted provisional admission, she was asked to report before the college on July 29 or 30, by 4 pm, the latter being the last date for admission..However, even though Koumudi visited the college with her parent for admission, her admission process was not completed. Later another candidate, who was below her in the merit list was granted admission. .She challenged the refusal to grant admission before the High Court. A Division Bench of the High Court directed the medical college to create an additional seat and accommodate Koumudi..The National Medical Commission challenged this order contending that additional seats cannot be created in this fashion..The Supreme Court agreed with the High Court that the college was indeed at fault for not having completed the admission formalities. ."The manner in which Respondent No.2-College acted in depriving admission to Respondent No.1 and giving admission to Respondent No.5 s deplorable. The managements of the medical colleges are not expected to indulge in such illegalities in making admissions to medical courses," the court said in its judgment..The Court, however, went on to add that additional seats cannot be created in the manner done by the High Court. The annual intake capacity is fixed by the MCI (now National Medical Commission) which has to be strictly adhered, the apex court said. Admissions to medical colleges cannot be permitted to be made beyond the sanctioned annual intake capacity of a medical college, it added. .The Court, therefore, ordered that Koumudi be granted admission next academic year. "One seat in MS (General Surgery) course from the Management Quota of the concerned medical College for the next academic year (2021-22) shall be granted to appellant," reads the judgment..Advocate K Parameshwar appeared for the Koumudi while advocate Gaurav Sharma represented the National Medical Commission. Advocate Siddhant Buxy appeared for the medical college. .[Read judgment]