Supreme Court imposes exemplary costs of rupees two crore on fraudulent petitioner

A division bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justice SA Bobde and Justice L Nageswara Rao has imposed exemplary costs of rupees two crores on the Mahavir Institute of Medical Sciences..The institute is understood to have adopted fraudulent means in trying to secure a renewal of permission to run a medical college with 150 MBBS seats..An inspection of the institute’s facilities by the Medical Council of India (MCI), in November 2017, led to a recommendation to the Union Government, advising against a renewal being granted..The petitioner subsequently provided the MCI with a compliance report addressing the deficiencies pointed out in the initial assessment report..The Government of India thereafter asked MCI to review the petitioner’s renewal request..The initial assessment report, a subsequent compliance verification assessment report, and a representation by the dean of the petitioner institute were considered by the Executive Committee (EC) of the MCI..A number of serious deficiencies were pointed out by the EC. The most glaring issue that was brought to the Government’s notice, was that a number of in-patients did not appear to be genuine..The Assessors felt that a number of patients with minor ailments had been admitted and that others did not seem to have any health-related complications that required hospitalization. The Assessors viewed this as an attempt by the institution to meet the basic standards required for the renewal sought..Senior Counsel Mukul Rohatgi who appeared for the petitioner argued that procedural norms had been violated in the assessment and that it was impermissible for the Assessors to express an opinion on the genuineness or otherwise of patients..The bench held that the court was not equipped to adjudicate on factual disputes, and that deference had to be shown to the findings an expert body which conducted the inspection..The petitioner’s case seeking judicial interference after it had been established that they did not fulfill the minimum requirements, did not find favour with the Court..The Court took serious note of the added element of deception by the institute, in trying to pass off healthy individuals as patients in an attempt to defraud, and hence imposed the exemplary costs..“We, therefore, dismiss the above Writ Petition with exemplary cost of Rupees Two Crores to be paid by the Petitioner, within a period of four weeks from today, to the Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Welfare Trust.”.Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand appeared for the government, while senior counsel Vikas Singh appeared for MCI..Read the order