The Supreme Court has ordered the Maharashtra government to pay a compensation of Rs 20 lakh each to the 21 aspirants who were denied MBBS seats. In a sharp reaction to the state government and the malpractices adopted by private colleges, the apex court has held that the state needed to pay the students for having failed to “take necessary action on the students’ complaints”.
In a case in 2012, 21 students were either denied admissions to private medical and dental colleges or were not allowed to shift from dental to medicine despite having the required scores.
The students had earlier approached the Pravesh Niyantran Samiti (PNS), a quasi-judicial body, which conducted an inquiry and found that the colleges had been flouting rules for admissions. PNS asked the state to cancel admissions to 250 seats in 17 colleges, most of which are run by politicians. With the government failing to take action, the students approached the Bombay high court and then the Supreme Court for being denied the rightful admission in 2012.
Though the detailed copy of the order is awaited, it is learnt that the court has also ordered an inquiry against the authorities who facilitated admissions without merit and revised the process to suit their needs.
