The Supreme Court on Thursday approved the minutes of a settlement reached among the Admission Supervisory Committee (ASC), the Kerala government and the Kerala Private Medical Colleges Management Association for filling 97 vacant seats in the management quota in 11 self-financing medical colleges in Kerala.
A Bench of Justice B. Sudershan Reddy and Justice S.S. Nijjar approved the minutes and directed the supervisory committee to fill the 97 seats after a fresh entrance test under its supervision. When senior counsel Harish Salve, appearing for the association, submitted that the last date for admissions was September 30 as per an earlier judgment, the Bench extended the time limit for completion of the admission process to October 25.
The Bench had on August 30 directed the managements' association to admit students to the 35 per cent management quota seats in its colleges from the rank list prepared by the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations on the basis of its Common Entrance Test (CET) conducted this year. The Bench passed the order while declining to stay a Kerala High Court judgment declaring void and inoperative an entrance test conducted by the association on May 30 for admission to the management seats in the 11 colleges.
During Thursday's hearing, senior counsel L. Nageswara Rao, appearing for the supervisory panel, informed the court that 97 seats in the management quota were to be filled since 253 students had already paid their fee.
Sentence deleted
The Bench did not approve of a sentence in the minutes which said that the remaining seats could be filled “...from the candidates who had already applied to the management's CET.” Mr. Justice Reddy told the counsel that “we fully agree with the High Court judgment. We will not allow even single admission on the basis of management's CET at any cost” and deleted this portion of the minutes and approved the rest of it.
The minutes said that “pursuant to the directions dated August 30, applications were invited from students who appeared in the State Entrance Examinations and 253 students deposited the fees. At present 97 seats are yet to be filled up against the management quota. It is agreed that 97 seats or the seats which may become vacant shall be filled by the ASC after a fresh Entrance examination under the supervision of the ASC.
“The allotment of these seats will be done under the supervision of the committee in a fair and transparent manner as per the Prospectus and Medical Council of India Regulations. The process will be completed by October 25.” The Bench directed the matter to be listed on October 29.
