New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday directed a Maharashtra medical college to deposit Rs2.5 crore as penalty with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for “overreaching” its order and admitting 100 MBBS students despite a stay order. The top court warned the college that it should not recover the penalty amount from the students.
The top court said this amount, which will be deposited in four weeks, will be used as per the discretion of the AIIMS director for the treatment of poor patients.
Hospital logbook had medical records of future date
In a hearing last year, the court had likened Annasaheb Chudaman Patil Memorial Medical College to the movie ‘Munna Bhai MBBS’ and noted that a surprise inspection by a National Medical Commission (NMC) team had found that all “hale and hearty” children were lying in the paediatric ward.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala recalled that the NMC team had found that the hospital logbook had medical records, including the blood pressure of patients, of a future date.
“The court has due regard to the situation of 100 of the students if admission is to be disturbed but at the same time, sanctity of the orders of this court has to be maintained,” the bench said in its order.
Advocate Gaurav Sharma, appearing for the NMC, said that for the academic year 2022-23, permission has been granted to the college for 100 MBBS seats after the inspection team found that it has rectified its deficiencies. However, in 2021-22, when the college was directed by this court not to enrol students, the institution continued with the process.
Senior advocate Nidesh Gupta, appearing for the medical college said that admission for 2021-22 had already been done by March and this court had passed the stay order on April 8.
The bench said that then the college should have brought this fact to the notice of this court by moving an application.
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