BANGALORE: The Justice S. Venkataraman Committee for Overseeing Admissions to Private Professional Colleges has directed the Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMED-K) to conduct counselling for seats for postgraduate (PG) medical and dental courses, which, according to the consortium, have remained vacant.

COMED-K had written to the committee that five PG dental seats and 46 medical seats had remained vacant in colleges under its jurisdiction.

The colleges had forwarded a resolution of May 15, 2005 to the committee, saying that they had conducted a first round of allocation of seats followed by a reallocation round, offering students an opportunity to take up PG courses.

They said even after the counselling, five dental seats and 46 medial seats remained vacant, and as per regulations of the Medical Council of India (MCI), there could not be a second round of counselling. The colleges said that as per MCI norms, the admission procedure would have to be completed by May 31.

They had very little time to conduct counselling for the vacant seats and faced staff shortage. They said they would not be able to obey a direction by the committee to hold another round of counselling.

The committee, however, directed it to hold another round of counselling, which, it said, would not be a fresh round but only a continuation of the earlier process. It held that such a process would not violate MCI norms. The committee said there were bound to be several vacancies, some of which might be in the branches much sought after.

It was only to ensure that they were filled in a fair and transparent manner that it had issued directions for continuing the process of counselling. It said admissions, as per MCI norms, were permissible till May 31.

The question of going against the directions given by the Supreme Court on filling casual round vacancies did not arise as no MCI norms would be violated, the committee said.

It rejected COMED-K's contention that lack of adequate staff would come in the way of conducting counselling.

The committee directed COMED-K to re-allot seats that had remained vacant.

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