Madras High Court
The President vs Dr.R.Udhaya Banu on 11 August, 2017
Author: Nooty.Ramamohana Rao
Bench: Nooty.Ramamohana Rao
In the High Court of Judicature at Madras Reserved on : 04.1.2017 & Pronounced on : 11/8/2017 Coram : The Honourable Mr.Justice NOOTY.RAMAMOHANA RAO And The Honourable Mr.Justice S.M.SUBRAMANIAN Writ Appeal Nos.263, 270, 320, 398, 596, 597, 614 & 923 of 2016 & Writ Petition Nos.419, 420, 7261 and 29419 to 29425 of 2016 & all connected pending CMPs & WMPs W.A.No.263 of 2016 : The President, Medical Council of India, Pocket 14, Sector 8, Dwaraka-Phase-I, New Delhi-77. Appellant Vs 1.Dr.R.Udhaya Banu 2.The Union of India, rep.by its Secretary, Ministry of Health, Office of the Health Minister, New Delhi. 3.The President, Tamil Nadu Medical Council, No.914, Poonamallee High Road, Arumbakkam, Chennai-106. 4.The Vice Chancellor/The Dean, Mahatma Gandhi Medical College & Research Institute, Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth University, Pondy Cuddalore Main Road, Pillayar Kuppam, Pondicherry. Respondents APPEALS under Clause 15 of the Letters Patent against the orders made respectively in WP.Nos.26326 and 26334 of 2014 both dated 04.1.2016, WP.No.1493 of 2016 dated 29.1.2016, WP.No.5736 of 2016 dated 26.2.2016, WP. Nos.11880 and 11846 of 2016 both dated 13.3.2016, WP.No.36467 of 2015 dated 04.1.2016 and WMP.No.12790 of 2016 in WP.No.14626 of 2016 dated 28.4.2016. PETITIONS under Article 226 of The Constitution of India praying for the issuance of (i) a Writ of Mandamus directing the 3rd respondent to register the petitioner's Post Graduate Degree in M.S.(OG) issued by the 4th respondent as a recognized degree under the Indian Medical Council Act 1956 (WP.No. 419 of 2016); (ii) a Writ of Mandamus directing the 3rd respondent to register the petitioner's Post Graduate Degree in M.S.(Obstetrics & Gynecology) Course issued by the 4th respondent as a recognized degree under the Indian Medical Council Act 1956 (WP.No. 420 of 2016); (iii) a Writ of Mandamus directing the 3rd respondent herein to register the PG Degree (MD Community Medicine) of the petitioners herein issued by the 2nd respondent University forthwith enabling the petitioners to participate in their further educational programmes and employment within a reasonable time as may be fixed by this Court (WP.No.7261 of 2016); (iv) a Writ of Mandamus directing the 5th respondent herein to register the PG Degree of the petitioner issued by the 3rd respondent University forthwith (WP.No. 29419 of 2016); (v) a Writ of Mandamus directing the 5th respondent herein to register the PG Degree of the petitioner issued by the 3rd respondent University forthwith (WP.No. 29420 of 2016); (vi) a Writ of Mandamus directing the 5th respondent herein to register the PG Degree of the petitioner issued by the 3rd respondent University forthwith (WP.No.29421 of 2016); (vii) a Writ of Mandamus directing the 5th respondent herein to register the PG Degree of the petitioner issued by the 3rd respondent University forthwith (WP.No. 29422 of 2016); (viii) a Writ of Mandamus directing the 5th respondent herein to register the PG Degree of the petitioner issued by the 3rd respondent University forthwith (WP.No.29423 of 2016); (ix) a Writ of Mandamus directing the 5th respondent herein to register the PG Degree of the petitioner issued by the 3rd respondent University forthwith (WP.No.29424 of 2016); and (x) a Writ of Mandamus directing the 5th respondent herein to register the PG Degree of the petitioner issued by the 3rd respondent University forthwith (WP.No.29425 of 2016). For Appellants in WA.Nos.263, 270, 320, 398 & 614 of 2016; For R108 in WA.No.923 of 2016; For R1 in WP.Nos.29419 to 29425 of 2016; For R2 & R3 in WP.Nos. 419 & 420 of 2016; & For R1 in WP.No.7261 of 2016 : Mr.V.P.Raman For R1 in WA.No.263 of 2016 : Mr.S.Subbiah For R3 in WA.Nos.263 & 270 of 2016 & For R8 in WA.No.320 of 2016; For appellants in WA.Nos. 596, 597 & 923 of 2016; For R3 in WA.No.398 of 2016; For R14 in WA.No.614 of 2016; For R5 in WP.Nos.29419 to 29425 of 2016; & For R3 in WP.No.7261 of 2016 : Mr.G.Sankaran For R4 in WA.Nos.263, 270 & 398 of 2016 : Mr.L.Swaminathan For R1 to R4 in WA.No.320 of 2016; For R1 to R10 in WA.No. 614 of 2016; & For Petitioner in WP.No.7261 of 2016 : Mr.L.S.M.Hassan Fizal For R6 in WA.No.320 of 2016 & For R70 in WA.No.596 of 2016; For R109 in WA.No.923 of 2016; & For R3 in WP.Nos.29419 to 29425 of 2016 : Mr.G.Hari Hara Arun Soma Sankar For R7 in WA.No.320 of 2016; For R4 in WP.Nos.29419 to 29425 of 2016; & For R5 in WP.Nos.419 & 420 of 2016 : Mr.K.Prabakar For R5 in WA.No.320 of 2016 & R71 in WA.No.596 of 2016; R1 in WA.No.614 of 2016; For R107 WA.No.923 of 2016 For R2 in WP.Nos.29419 to 29425 of 2016 : Mr.K.Venkatramani, AAG assisted by Mr.P.Sivashanmuga Sundaram, SGP For R1 in WA.No.398 of 2016 : Mr.R.Manickavel For R5 in WA.No.596 of 2016 : Mr.S.Sathishrajan For R1 to R4 & R6 to R67 in WA.No.596 of 2016 : Mr.R.Selvakumar For R25 in WA.No.596 of 2016; & For R1, R2, 24, 25, 61, 63, 71 to 73, 75, 77, 79, 80, 83, 87, 110, 114 & 119 : Mr.V.Raghavachari For R72 in WA.No.596 of 2016 : Mr.R.Krishnamurthi, SC assisted by Mr.A.Jinasenan For R3, R5 to R7, R9, R11 to R18, R23, R26, R27, R29 to R31, R33 to R41, R44 to R60, R62, R64, R66 to R70, R74, R76, R81, R82, R84 to R86, R88, R89, R91, R92, R95 to R108, R111 to R113, R115 to R117 & R119 to R122 and R126 in WA.No.597 of 2016 : Mr.V.T.Gopalan, SC for Mrs.Radha Gopalan For R4, R8, R10, R19 to R22, R28, R43, R65, R78, R93, R94, R118 & R123 to R125 in WA.No.597 of 2016 : Mr.S.Thankasivan For R131 in WA.No.597 of 2016 : Mr.T.Meikandan For R12 in WA.No.614 of 2016 : Mr.Anand David For R13 in WA.No.614 of 2016 : Mr.S.K.Prabakar For R1 to R106 in WA.No.923 of 2016 : Mr.Kandan Doraisami for M/s.Muthumani Doraisami For R110 in WA.No.923 of 2016 : Mr.A.S.Balaji For R111 in WA.No.923 of 2016; & For R1 in WP.Nos.419 & 420 of 2016 : Mr.K.S.Jaya Ganesan For Petitioners in WP.Nos.29419 to 29425 of 2016 : Mr.N.R.Chandran, SC for Mr.R.Natarajan For Petitioners in WP.Nos.419 & 420 of 2016 : Mr.G.Justin For R5 in WP.Nos.419 & 420 of 2016 : Mr.D.Ravichander For R2 in WP.No.7261 of 2016 : Mr.K.Sathishkumar COMMON JUDGMENT
NOOTY.RAMAMOHANA RAO,J WA.Nos.614 and 320 of 2016 :
Both these writ appeals are preferred by the Medical Council of India (henceforth called as the MCI). While W.A.No.614 of 2016 is preferred against order dated 04.1.2016 passed by our learned brother M.M.Sundresh,J in W.P.No.36467 of 2015, W.A.No.320 of 2016 is directed against the order dated 29.1.2016 rendered in W.P.No.1493 of 2016 by the very same learned Judge duly following the order passed by him earlier in W.P.No.36467 of 2015.
2. The writ petitioners are students, who prosecuted various Post Graduate medical courses such as M.D.(General Medicine), M.D.(General Surgery), M.D.(Pediatrics), M.D./M.S.(OBG) and M.D. (Anesthesia) from the fourth respondent ESI Corporation Medical College and Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (henceforth called as the Medical College).
3. There is no doubt with regard to the fact that the MCI granted the Letter of Permission (LoP) to the medical college for commencing Post Graduate medical courses paving the way for grant of admission to the aforementioned Post Graduate medical courses in the fourth respondent - Medical College. They completed the three year Post Graduate course and appeared for the examinations conducted by the third respondent the Tamil Nadu Dr.MGR Medical University (for short, the Medical University), Chennai and they were declared to have passed the respective courses and a provisional certificate was also issued to them. However, the fifth respondent the Tamil Nadu Medical Council declined to register the Post Graduate degree certificate so secured, with the result, the writ petitioners could not participate either in the selection for securing employment in Government Medical Services or pursue further super specialization in their chosen field of medical education. It is in that backdrop, the writ petitions came to be instituted seeking identical relief, to direct the fifth respondent to register the respective Post Graduate degrees of the petitioners as accorded by the third respondent - Medical University forthwith.
4. The learned Judge, by a detailed order dated 04.1.2016, allowed W.P.No.36467 of 2015 and finding the cause in W.P.No.1493 of 2016 being identical, allowed it following the same reasoning assigned by him in the earlier order dated 04.1.2016 rendered in W.P.No.36467 of 2015.
5. Before the learned Single Judge, the objections raised by the MCI, which also formed the sheet anchor of their attack even before us, is that the Medical College has not removed all the deficiencies pointed out by the MCI and hence, the name of the fourth respondent - Medical College and the degrees secured by the writ petitioners by studying the respective Post Graduate degree courses in the said Medical College could not be included in the First Schedule to the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 (henceforth called as the Act) and issuing a Writ for registering such Post Graduate degrees by the fifth respondent State Medical Council would amount to re-writing the legal regime contained in Sections 11 and 17 of the Act.
6. The core issue canvassed before us - and with passion as well - sent us to decipher the content and scope of Sections 11 and 17 of the Act. The Act has been ushered in, amongst other purposes, to maintain an All India Register by the MCI containing the names of all the medical practitioners possessing recognized medical qualifications. Over a period of time, the Act has been amended providing for various related subject matters concerning establishment of medical colleges, new courses of study and recognition of medical qualifications granted by medical institutions in foreign countries, standardization of the course content, etc.
7. Under Section 3 of this Act, the Central Government was required to cause to be constituted a Council consisting of several members. As per Section 6 of the Act, the Council so constituted shall be a Body Corporate by the name of MCI having perpetual succession and a common seal. Section 10A has been introduced by Amending Act 31 of 1993. Section 10A(1)(b) declares that notwithstanding anything contained in the said Act or any other law for the time being in force, no medical college shall open a new or higher course of study or training including a Post Graduate course of study or training, which would enable a student of such course or training to qualify himself for the award of any recognized medical qualification, without obtaining prior permission. Similarly, increase of admission capacity in any course of study or training in a medical college is also injuncted.
8. Section 10B(2) sets out that where any medical college opens a new or higher course of study or training, except with the previous permission of the Central Government in accordance with the provisions of Section 10A, no medical qualification granted to any student of such medical college on the basis of such study or training shall be a recognized medical qualification for purposes of this Act. Thus, no medical qualification granted to any student of such a medical college, which opens a new higher course of study without first obtaining the previous permission in terms of Section 10A, shall be a recognized medical qualification. In other words, medical qualification secured by undertaking a study of the course/training, in a medical college/ institute which offered such a course/training after obtaining the permission under Section 10A of the Act, is a recognized qualification.
9. Section 11 deals with recognition of medical qualifications granted by universities or medical institutions in India. Since it will have some bearing upon the controversy at issue, we extract the said provision, which reads as under :
1. The medical qualifications granted by any university or medical Institution in India, which are included in the First Schedule shall be recognized medical qualifications for the purposes of this Act;
2. Any university or medical institution in India which grants a medical qualification not included in the First Schedule may apply to the Central Government, to have such qualification recognized, and the Central Government, after consulting the Council, may, by Notification in the Official Gazette, amend the First Schedule so as to include such qualification therein, and any such notification may also direct that an entry shall be made in the last column of the First Schedule against such medical qualification declaring that it shall be a recognized medical qualification only when granted after a specified date.
10. Sub-Section (1) thereof declares that the medical qualifications granted by any university or medical institution in India, which are included in the First Schedule shall be recognized medical qualifications for purposes of the Act. Sub-Section (2) thereof makes a provision that any university or medical institution in India, which grants a medical qualification not included in the First Schedule, may apply to the Central Government to have such qualification recognized and the Central Government, after consulting the Council, may, by Notification in the official gazette, amend the First Schedule so as to include such qualifications therein declaring that it shall be a recognized medical qualification only when granted after a specified date. 11. Thus, the content of Section 11 is more declaratory in nature. While Sub-Section (1) of Section 11 has provided for recognition of the medical qualifications granted by any university or medical institution in India, for which purpose, the university/medical institution shall be included in the First Schedule to the Act. By this provision, recognition of the medical qualifications granted by the universities or medical institutions is sought to be regulated. Thus, it is, to a certain extent, a regulatory provision as well and when once the medical qualification, which the university or medical institution granting it, gets included in the First Schedule to the Act, the qualification as well as the institution granting it get automatically recognized.
12. Whereas Sub-Section (2) is somewhat procedural in content and scope. It enables the university or medical institution in India to grant a medical qualification, which institution or the course may not have been included in the First Schedule, to apply to the Central Government to amend appropriately the First Schedule. But however, such universities/medical institutions are required to have such qualifications recognized by approaching the Central Government, which, in turn, shall consult the MCI and then notify in the official gazette the necessary amendment to the First Schedule, so as to include such qualifications granted by the university or medical institution. Further, such grant of recognition can be accorded with effect from a specified date. Thus, the necessary discretion has also been accorded to the Central Government and the MCI in so far as amendment in the First Schedule to the Act is concerned.
13. It will also be appropriate in this context to notice the content of the provisions of Sub-Section (1) of Section 13, which sets out that medical qualifications granted by medical institutions in India, which are not included in the First Schedule, but which are included in Part I of the Third Schedule shall also be recognized as medical qualifications for the purposes of the Act. Though the setting of Section 13 is intended to achieve a different purpose and objective, but it lends support to the view that Sub-Section (2) of Section 11 is only procedural in content and nature and is not a substantive one to be construed as a bar.
14. Section 15 of the Act sets out that the medical qualifications included in the Schedule of the Act shall be sufficient qualifications for enrollment on any State Medical Register. Section 16 requires every university or medical institution in India, which grants a recognized medical qualification, to furnish such information as the Council may, from time to time, require as to the courses of study and examinations to be undergone in order to obtain such qualification and the requisites for obtaining such qualification. Section 16, thus, confers power on the Medical Council of securing necessary information for the purpose of maintenance of standards of the State Medical Registers.
15. Section 17 contemplates appointment of Medical Inspectors to inspect any medical institution, college, hospital where education is imparted or to attend any examination to be held by any university or medical institution for purpose of recommending to the Central Government, recognition of medical qualifications granted by that university or medical institution. Sub-Section (2) thereof makes it clear that the Medical Inspectors so appointed shall not interfere with the conduct of any training or examination, but shall report on the adequacy of the standards of medical education including staff, equipment, accommodation, training facilities prescribed for giving medical education or on the sufficiency of every examination, which they attend. Sub-Section (3) enables the copy of the inspection report together with the remarks of the university or medical institution thereon, to be forwarded to the Central Government for its consideration.
16. Thus, Section 17 of the Act has conferred a regulatory power on the MCI to oversee that proper standards of medical education are maintained and that no infrastructural deficiency or instructional deficiency is ignored in the matter of recognition of the medical qualifications granted by such university/medical institution concerned by the Central Government while examining the necessity for amending the First Schedule of the Act. Section 18 also enables the Medical Council to appoint Visitors (any person other than those who are appointed as Inspectors under Section 17) to inspect any medical institution, college, hospital where medical education is imparted or to attend any examination held by such university or medical institution for the purpose of granting recognized medical qualifications. The Visitors shall not interfere with the conduct of any training or examination, but shall report on the adequacy of the standards of medical education including staff, equipment, accommodation, training and other facilities prescribed for imparting such medical education or on the sufficiency of every examination, which they attend. The report of the Visitor under Sub-Section (4) of Section 18 shall be treated as confidential and in case the Central Government wishes to look into such report of a Visitor, the Council shall furnish the same to the Central Government.
17. Section 19(1) confers power on the Medical Council, based upon a report by the Committee of Inspectors appointed under Section 17 or on the basis of the report of the Visitor appointed under Section 18, if the Medical Council forms an opinion that the courses of study and examination to be undergone or the deficiencies in both instructional and infrastructural, render them to come to a conclusion that they do not conform to the standards prescribed by the Council, to make a recommendation to that effect to the Central Government. Under Sub-Section (2) of Section 19, upon considering such report of the Medical Council, the Central Government shall forward the same to the State Government concerned with such remarks, which it may choose to intake thereon and send it to the university or medical institution calling for its explanation to be offered within a specified time limit. Under Sub-Section (3), the State Government, while forwarding the explanation, if any submitted by the institution concerned, shall make its recommendations to the Central Government. Under Sub-Section (4) of Section 19, the Central Government, by Notification in the official gazette, direct that entry shall be made in the appropriate schedule against the medical qualifications granted by the university or medical institution declaring that it shall be a recognized medical qualification only when granted before a specified date or after a specified date, as the case may be.
18. Under Section 19A, the Medical Council has been authorized to prescribe minimum standards of medical education required for granting recognized medical qualifications by universities or medical institutions in India by framing appropriate regulations. Section 20 specifically confers powers on the MCI to prescribe standards of Post Graduate medical education for the guidance of universities. Section 21 requires the MCI to maintain a Register of Medical Practitioners to be known as the Indian Medical Register, which shall contain the names of all persons, who are for the time being enrolled on any State Medical Register and also the recognized medical qualifications possessed by them.
19. Section 23 enables the Registrar of the MCI, upon receipt of a report of registration of person in a State Medical Register or on application made in the prescribed manner by any such person, enter his name in the Indian Medical Register, provided the Registrar is satisfied that the person concerned possesses a required medical qualification. Section 25 provides for provisional registration. Sub-Section (2) provides for provisional registration in the State Medical Register. Sub-Section (2) of Section 25 reads as under :
A person who has passed the qualifying examination of any university or medical institution in India for the grant of a recognized medical qualification shall be entitled to be registered provisionally in a State Medical Register for the purpose of enabling him to be engaged in employment in a resident medical capacity in any approved institution, or in the Medical Service of the Armed Forces of the Union, and for no other purpose, on production of proper evidence that he has been selected for such employment.
20. Section 26 includes any person, whose name is entered in the Indian Medical Register, upon obtaining any title, diploma or other qualification for proficiency in medicine, which is a recognized medical qualification and upon his application, be entitled to have an entry relating to such qualification made against his name in the Medical Register either in substitution for or in addition to any entry previously made. Section 33 confers power on the Council to make regulations with previous sanction of the Central Government on the subjects specified therein.
21. The First Schedule has included the Medical University, Chennai and the Post Graduate courses pursued by the writ petitioners students in the instant case are also included therein.
22. An analysis of the provisions of the Act, in particular, Sections 10A, 16 and 17, unmistakably discloses that the MCI has power of superintendence for purpose of maintaining the standards of medical education in the country. By the very constitution, the MCI is an Expert Body on the subject. Therefore, it has been conferred wide ranging regulatory and other substantive powers dealing with medical education, both at the Under Graduate and Post Graduate levels. But however, as was noticed supra, Section 11(2) has provided for the qualification granted by a university or medical institution, which is not already included in the First Schedule under the Act to be included in the First Schedule of the Act by the Central Government. When once the Letter of Permission (LoP) has been accorded to a medical college by the MCI for starting a new course of Post Graduate education, in terms of and in accordance with Section 10A, thereafter it can only make available the inspection report submitted under Section 17 by the Committee of Inspectors or Visitors report gathered under Section 18 of the Act either for grant or withdrawal of recognition of the qualifications by the Central Government by following the procedure prescribed under Section 19. On its own, the MCI cannot either grant or withhold the recognition of any medical qualification. It can only make its remarks to be made available to the Central Government and the Central Government will have to act in strict conformity of Section 19 of the Act either for the purpose of granting or withdrawing the recognition.
23. Thus, in the instant case, the writ petitioners students have prosecuted the three year Post Graduate medical education from the fourth respondent medical college only after the LoP has been accorded by the MCI to the said medical college. If there are still deficiencies, both instructional and infrastructural, remained unrectified by the medical college concerned, the MCI cannot prevent the provisional registration of the qualifications acquired by the students. Section 25(2) clearly provides for provisional registration in the State Medical Register for purposes of employment in a resident medical capacity in any approved institution or in the medical services of the Armed Forces of the Union and for no other purpose on production of proper evidence that he has been selected for employment.
24. In the instant case, the writ petitioners are seeking the registration of their Post Graduate qualifications in the State Medical Register to enable them to be recruited by the Selection Committee constituted by the State Government. Therefore, the writ petitioners could be recruited by the State Government initially to be employed as a resident medical practitioner in any of the medical institutions approved and lying in their administrative control. Therefore, we are of the opinion that the provisional registration of the Post Graduate medical qualifications acquired by the writ petitioners upon passing the examination conducted by the third respondent the Medical University, Chennai, cannot be prevented.
25. The State Legislature enacted the Tamil Nadu Dr.MGR Medical University Chennai Act (Act 37 of 1987) (henceforth called the State Act). The State Act applies to every college and institution situated within the university area, which conducts any course of study or imparts any course or training, which may qualify for award of any degree, diploma or other academic distinction by the university in any system of medicine [Section 1(3)(d)]. Section 5 of the State Act confers power on the university to hold examinations and to confer degrees, diplomas and other academic distinctions on any person, who has pursued an approved course of study or training in a college and has passed the examinations prescribed by the university. Sub-Section (2) of Section 5 also confers power on the university to confer degrees, diplomas and other academic distinctions on persons, who have pursued an approved course of study or training or research. Sub-Section (5) of Section 5 has conferred powers on the university to affiliate colleges or institutions as affiliated colleges. Thus, the power to conduct examination and confer degrees on those, who qualified at the end of course of study or training is available with the State University.
26. In the above backdrop, when we examine the views expressed by the learned Single Judge in the impugned orders, there is no exception that is needed to be drawn thereto, for, the students pursued the Post Graduate education in an affiliated medical college only after that college was granted LoP for that particular Post Graduate course and underwent three year training course therein, have successfully completed the study or the course or training and have appeared for the examinations conducted by the third respondent university, which has been authorized by the State Enactment to conduct such examinations and confer degrees on successful candidates. Therefore, the provisional pass certificate issued by the third respondent university is, in no manner, defective. If we may add, in spite of infrastructural and institutional defects said to have been noticed by the MCI, in so far as the fourth respondent medical college, still the students could make the grade by competing with their peers, who have prosecuted the same course from other medical institutions in the State where there are no such deficiencies. They have cleared the examination when they are judged in this backdrop by a common yardstick thus proving that instructional and infrastructural deficiencies found out by the MCI have not come in their way at all and their study and performance at the university examinations is not greatly impacted.
27. However, we are pained to notice that without rectifying or remedying the deficiencies pointed out by the Inspecting Teams of the MCI constituted under Section 17 of the Act, the medical institutions are allowed to go ahead and permit their students to complete the course of study. The MCI is required to act in time and not to wait till the very last minute when the students would be left with very little time or chance to enjoy the benefits by securing compliance with the deficiencies. The students cannot be subjected to the humiliating experience of waiting in the wings for years together. The various measures and options softly followed by the MCI, if they are not producing desired results, perhaps time has come to evolve a legal principle and fasten accountability on the medical college/institution concerned. The power to do so is clearly available both under Sections 17 and 19 of the Act.
28. Whenever any medical institution allows the students to complete their education without fully rectifying or remedying the deficiencies pointed out by the Committee of Inspectors appointed by the MCI under Section 17 or the Visitors report gathered under Section 18, such medical institutions shall be imposed compensatory costs, so that if not for fear of God, they would comply with the requirements prescribed by the MCI faithfully for fear of losing money. We consider that it would be appropriate to levy compensatory costs at the rate of Rs.1,00,000/- (Rupees one lakh only) for every Under Graduate student, who has been allowed to complete the course without fully remedying and rectifying all the infrastructural and instructional deficiencies pointed out by the MCI. Similarly, a minimum of Rs.2,00,000/- (Rupees two lakhs only) shall be imposed as compensatory costs for every student, who has been allowed to complete the Post Graduate course without remedying and rectifying the defects pointed out by the Team of Inspectors of the MCI. The State Government, through its Director of Medical Education, shall recover, on annual basis, the compensatory costs to be imposed by the MCI from each defaulting medical college/institution. Later on, the Director of Medical Education shall disburse the costs so recovered to each of such students as a measure of compensation after deducting a sum of Rs.10,000/- in case of Under Graduate students and Rs.25,000/- (Rupees twenty five thousand only) in case of Post Graduate students and the State Government is entitled to withhold the said sum of Rs.10,000/- (Rupees ten thousand only) in case of Under Graduate students and a sum of Rs.25,000/- (Rupees twenty five thousand only) in case of Post Graduate students. The money so withheld by the State Government shall not be appropriated by it for any other purpose, but it must be exclusively spent for upgrading the infrastructure in one or more than one medical college administered by it.
W.A.Nos.263, 270, 398, 596, 597 and 923 of 2016 :
29. In view of our analysis of the legal regime and coming to the conclusion that the Post Graduate medical qualifications obtained by the students after LoP is granted to the institution concerned, such students are entitled to have such qualifications entered in the register maintained by the State Medical Council, the above reasoning applies equally in the other cases also, including to Under Graduate courses. We may also add that M.D. (Microbiology) course in Mahatma Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute, Puducherry has been recognized on 20.5.2016 (subject matter of W.A.Nos.264, 268 and 269 of 2016). Similarly, M.D.(Community Medicine) in Mahatma Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute, Puducherry has been recognized on 20.5.2016 (subject matter of W.A.Nos. 265, 266 and 267 of 2016). M.D. (Anesthesia) in ESI Medical College and Research Institute, Chennai has been recognized on 03.8.2013 and in so far as M.D. (General Medicine) is concerned, after considering the compliance report, the MCI recommended to the Central Government on 24.5.2016 for recognition of the course, which is the subject matter of W.A.Nos.320 and 614 of 2016.
W.P.Nos.419, 420, 7261, 29419 to 29425 of 2016 :
30. The core issue raised in these writ petitions is all about the right to have their Post Graduate degree qualifications entered on provisional basis in the State Medical Register. In view of our findings above, since the students have prosecuted the course from the college, which has been accorded LoP, such qualifications deserve to be included in the State Medical Register on provisional basis.
31. For the aforesaid reasons, we find no merit in these writ appeals.
32. It is seen that W.A.Nos.596, 597 and 923 of 2016 have been filed against the interim orders granted by the learned Single Judge in W.P.Nos. 11846 and 11880 of 2016 dated 13.3.2016 as well as W.P.No.14626 of 2016 dated 28.4.2016. Following the same reasoning set out by us supra, W.P. Nos.11846, 11880 and 14626 of 2016 are allowed.
33. Accordingly, all the writ appeals are dismissed. Consequently, all the CMPs are also dismissed. W.P.Nos.419, 420, 7261, 29419 to 29425 of 2016 are allowed. Consequently, the connected WMPs are closed. No costs.
(N.R.R.J.) (S.M.S.J.) 11/8/2017 Speaking Index : Yes Internet : Yes RS NOOTY.RAMAMOHANA RAO,J AND S.M.SUBRAMANIAN,J RS P.D.COMMON JUDGMENT IN WA.Nos.263, 270, 320, 398, 596, 597, 614 & 923 of 2016 & WP.Nos.419, 420, 7261, 29419 to 29425 of 2016 & all connected pending CMPs & WMPs 11/8/2017