The Madras High Court Bench here has said it would not entertain cases filed to condone lack of attendance, especially with respect to medical college students, since their “incomplete training will put several human lives in danger.”
Justice S. Vaidyanathan made the observation while dismissing writ petitions filed by two government doctors who were not allowed by a private medical college in Kanyakumari district to take up their postgraduate examinations this month for want of 85 per cent attendance.
“Allowing these writ petitions will amount to injustice and discrimination. It will also set a wrong precedent since, according to the college, three other students, apart from the two petitioners before the court, had been stopped from writing examinations for the same reason,” the judge said.
Well-framed rules and regulations should not be tinkered with at any cost, the judge said, adding: “It is to be remembered that implementing the rules and regulations will help the students mould the values expected from them.” He went on to state that insistence on 85 per cent attendance, prescribed by the Medical Council of India and Tamil Nadu Dr.MGR Medical University, was not to trouble the students but only to achieve the aim of imparting the requisite training and making them experts.
The judge said the petitioners were serving as Assistant Surgeons at different government hospitals in Kanyakumari district. They were on study leave to pursue PG courses in Community Medicine and Biochemistry. Though the classes for the PG courses began in April 2012, they started attending the classes only from November 2012 due to the delay in obtaining permission from their superiors. Hence, the college refused to allow them to take up their final-year examinations this month.
