The Madras High Court Bench here has directed a private medical college based in Chennai to consider permitting a final year student to write his examinations in the light of a legal opinion that a case booked against him in 2011, for causing the death of a woman by knocking her down from a bicycle, cannot be an impediment to continue his studies.
Disposing of a writ petition filed by the student’s mother, a doctor practising in Tirunelveli district, Justice M. Venugopal pointed out that the criminal case had been booked against the student at the instance of Traffic Intelligence Wing in Tirunelveli on charges of rash and negligent driving of a car when he was in the midst of holidays after completing his Plus-Two examinations.
Subsequently, he got admitted to MBBS course in a private medical college in Chennai in the academic year 2011-12 and voluntarily disclosed the details of the criminal case pending against him, the petitioner claimed and stated that her son continued to pursue his medical course without any impediment until a new doctor was appointed as dean of the college.
The new dean issued a notice to her son March 29 this year and directed him to submit all particulars regarding the criminal case along with court orders, if any, exonerating him from the case and warned that failure to produce the documents would lead to preventing him from taking part in the final year examinations and completing the course.
Hence, the petitioner urged the court to quash the notice and consequently direct the dean not to interfere in the studies of her son. She also claimed to have received a legal opinion from the Public Prosecutor of Principal District and Sessions Court in Tirunelveli on April 15 to the effect that legally there was no bar for her son to continue his education.
