New Delhi, June 21
In the wake of errors found in preparing the merit list for admission to the MBBS course against the 15 per cent central quota in medical colleges across the country, the Supreme Court today stopped the ongoing counselling for the same and ordered that it to be done afresh from June 26.
The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) itself brought the matter before the court after detecting a serious lapse on the part of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), which conducts the admission test every year, in preparing the merit list. The names of 25 students were excluded from the list due to a computing error.
A Bench of Mr Justice A.R. Lakhsmanan and Mr Justice Altamas Kabir directed that a fresh merit list be drawn by removing the error and the same be immediately put on the websites of the DGHS and the CBSE for the benefit of students.
The court further directed the DGHS to get its order published in major newspapers to inform the students about the fresh counselling.
The Directorate was allowed one week’s relaxation in completing the admission schedule, which otherwise had to be followed on dot as drawn on the apex court’s guidelines to avoid admission related irregularities that virtually had become an annual feature.
There are a total of 1,654 seats available for admission against the 15 per cent all India quota in government medical colleges across the country. The court was informed that the counselling of over 500 students had been completed when the error was detected.
Many worried students and their parents were seen taking rounds of the court to know the actual position soon after the news of re-counselling was flashed on TV channels.
Some students said they had even got tickets for depositing the fee with the allotted colleges and now they would have to undergo the same exercise again for no fault on their part. Many students looked worried, fearing that their ranks might be affected due to the redrawing of the merit list.
However, the DGHS counsel said preparing the fresh merit list would not make much difference to those students whose names were already in the merit list barring a certain minor alteration.
Since the Supreme Court was monitoring the medical admissions in view of a pending petition on MBBS admission, the DGHS was duty bound to bring the matter to the court’s notice to seek clearance for cancelling the counselling and having it afresh.
The DGHS counsel informed the court that though the computing error was found in respect of 50 students due to putting of a wrong paper code, only 25 students mattered for the purpose of the central quota list. The ranks obtained by the remaining 25 students were far below the 1,654 available seats and they were automatically out of the race.
