In a judgment that can help authorities crack down on private medical colleges for collecting huge donations for admissions, the Karnataka High Court on Wednesday directed the Rajya Vokkaligara Sangha and its Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) to pay Rs.1 crore each as compensation to three MBBS seat aspirants for making them lose one academic year for admitting them “in excess” of total intake.
The court also directed the sangha and KIMS to refund lakhs of rupees received from the four students offering them admission, and to pay Rs. 5 lakh each to them as cost of litigation for having driven them to the “unnecessary litigation”.
Petitions filed
Justice H.G. Ramesh passed the order while disposing of petitions filed by four students making claims on the last seat under the management quota, as the college had collected money from all the four, with a rider that their admission would be subject to approval from the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) and the Medical Council of India (MCI).