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Chennai: It’s a tragic anti-climax for more than 600 students who got into medical colleges this year, as the National Medical Commission has invalidated their MBBS admission for violation of its guidelines. This, coupled with mismanagement of the counselling process in several states, will result in more than 2,000 MBBS seats across the country going waste.
While admissions to more than 1,500 MBBS seats were time-barred and remained vacant even after the September 30 deadline set by the Supreme Court, admissions of another 600 students are in jeopardy as their admissions were invalidated by the National Medical Commission (NMC). These students were admitted by colleges in violation of rules that only a central or state agency can conduct counselling.
All these seats will remain vacant for the course period unless the SC extends the deadline. On Thursday, undergraduate medical education board director Shambhu Sharan Kumar issued a two-page notification saying students admitted by central and state authorities after the cutoff date of September 30 should be discharged immediately.
Pointing out that the Supreme Court approved the time schedule after consulting all states, UTs, the central government and other stakeholders in 2016, the notification said the apex court had reiterated in 2019 that seats lying vacant would not be a “justifiable reason” to extend the cutoff date or grant admissions beyond that. This year, NMC cautioned the stakeholders about the cutoff date on July 27.
Kumar said that states such as Maharashtra, Bihar and Bengal conducted online and offline MBBS counselling beyond the cutoff date.
The Bihar Combined Entrance Competitive Examination Board had advertised on October 9 inviting applications for a stray vacancy round. It is not clear how many students were allotted seats in the round. Officials in Bengal said the number of vacant seats was still being compiled.
Admission to more than 350 MBBS seats in Puducherry was done after September 30. When asked, the UT’s admission authority Centac said the public notice was not applicable to Puducherry. “The home ministry approved a 10 per cent quota for government school students only on September 5. So, we could not complete the admission process on time,” said Centac convenor Sivaraj. The LG and CM have written to the Centre and NMC requesting extension of the deadline.
Some students who had joined self-financing colleges told TOI they had quit engineering courses in NITs and popular deemed universities. “Students won’t be admitted there now. Arts and science colleges admissions have also closed,” said a parent.
In Maharashtra, however, the cutoff date was not the issue. At least 141 MBBS seats in the state were filled at the ‘institute level’ in the stray vacancy round, in violation of NMC rules. These admissions have now been declared invalid.
