The Madras High Court has criticised the government of Puducherry and its Centralised Admission Committee (CENTAC) for issuing a prospectus for medical admissions this year and then making a claim that the three private medical colleges in the Union Territory must hand over 50% seats to the government quota.
Justice N. Anand Venkatesh said, “This court is really surprised regarding the stand taken by the first [the government] and second [CENTAC] respondents. If these respondents are very sure that 50% quota is enforceable against the private institutions, it could have been made very clear in the prospectus itself. “Instead, a prospectus has been issued showing only 55 seats (by each college out of their permitted intake of 150) under the government quota. The contention that the number of seats mentioned in the prospectus is tentative, and subject to change, is a very weak defence.”
The judge made the observations while dismissing a batch of writ petitions filed by a group of medical seat aspirants seeking a direction to Sri Manakula Vinayagar Medical College and Hospital, Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences and Sri Venkateshwaraa Medical College and Research Institute to allot 50% (75 seats each) of their intake capacity to the government quota.
Senior Counsel Hema Sampath, AR.L. Sundaresan and advocate Abhishek Jenasenan, representing the colleges, claimed the batch of cases was a proxy litigation preferred by the government. They argued that rules of the admission could not be changed after the prospectus had been issued.
After recording the submissions, the judge said, “It is too late in the day to change the rules of the game after the selection process has commenced for the medical courses”
