The Supreme Court today stayed the May 7 order of the Telangana High Court which had suspended the surrender of seats in post graduate diploma courses by medical colleges in the state.
The Bench of Justices Mohan M Shantanagoudar and R Subhash Reddy also issued notice to the Union of India and the Medical Council of India (MCI) in a plea by three Telangana-based medical colleges, filed through Advocate-on-Record Siddhant Buxy. Senior Advocate KV Viswanathan appeared for the petitioner colleges.
The petitioners, Kamineni Medical College, Prathima Medical College and MNR Medical, filed the urgent plea challenging the May 7 order of the Telangana High Court, as they were not able to “fill additional seats in their PG degree courses validly created in lieu of the surrendered seats in PG diploma courses”.
These seats would otherwise have been filled through state counselling, the plea said.
The primary contention of the petitioner was that the High Court order was opposed to principles of natural justice, as it “was passed without the presence of the petitioners”, and even before affording them an opportunity to represent themselves.
Secondly, the plea contended that the High Court order was passed in a writ petition where no pleading, prayer or case is made out against the colleges.
The urgency of the plea was substantiated by the fact that the cut-off date for completing state counselling for the academic year 2020-21 was May 13. While the last date for completing central counselling is May 31, the High Court had fixed the next date of hearing on June 1. The plea states,
“Impugned Order is going to result in wastage of 18 post graduation seats in medical colleges in Telangana for the academic year 2020-21, if not interfered with by this Hon’ble Court before the cut-off date."
[Read the order]
