Peoples College of Medical Sciences and Research Centre vs Union of India

By this petition, filed under Article 226 of the Constitution, the petitioners have challenged the validity of order dated 31.7.2013, Annexure P18, passed by respondent no. 2 Board of Governors in Supersession of Medical Council of India rejecting their application for increase of seats in MS (General Surgery) course for the academic session 2013-14.

According to petitioner no. 1 People''s College of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Bhopal, it is a constituent unit of petitioner no. 2 People''s University, Bhopal. On 27.4.2012 they had applied for increase of seats in MS (General Surgery) course for the academic session 2013-14. Acting upon the application, respondent no. 2 appointed assessor vide order dated 20.11.2012. The assessor conducted inspection of the petitioners'' college on 4.12.2012. Thereafter respondent no. 2, relying upon the assessor''s report, issued a show cause notice dated 4.2.2013 as to why the application for increase of seats be not rejected on account of following deficiency:

There is discrepancy in the daily load of the histopathology in the assessment report of General Surgery and other clinical objects. The institute is directed to submit clarification in this regard.

The petitioners submitted a detailed reply dated 6.2.2013 but it failed to convince respondent no. 2. In the result, respondent no. 2 vide order dated 28.3.2013 rejected the petitioners'' application for increase of seats.

Aggrieved, the petitioners filed Writ Petition No. 10027/2013 and this High Court vide order dated 19.7.2013 quashed the order dated 28.3.2013 on the ground that it was cryptic and directed respondent no. 2 to consider the matter afresh. Thereupon, respondent no. 2 by the impugned order dated 31.7.2013 has again rejected the petitioners'' application for increase of seats. It is in this background, the petitioners have filed the present writ petition.

It is mainly argued on behalf of the petitioners that respondent no. 2 has illegally rejected their application by considering additional deficiencies which were not mentioned in the show cause notice and for which no opportunity to reply was given. We find force in this submission.

The relevant extract of order dated 31.7.2013 passed by respondent no. 2 reads as under:

On reviewing the documents, it was observed unexplained gap in service of following faculty was observed:-

i) Dr. Yogendra Singh, from 02/05/2006 to 22/01/2012

ii) Prof. P.S. Bapat, from 11/12/2003 to 14/03/2007

iii) Dr. Kailash Charokar, from 01/05/2011 to 01/04/2012

iv) Dr. H.S. Bisoniya, from July, 2005 to 29/-3/2008

v) Dr. Jummy Shad, from June 2007 to Sept. 2010

vi) Dr. Mridul Shahi, from 01/07/2005 to 18/11/2007

This raises doubts about the fulltime status of the faculty.

It may be stated that the Institute has submitted the Histopathology details as Annexure-I from the assessment reports of General Surgery, Orthopaedics, Paediatrics, Medicine and ENT. But it was observed that Histopathology details from the department of Pathology, which is the parent department, was not submitted. The Institute had also applied for increase of seats in department of Pathology along with enhancement of seats in other clinical disciplines.

The Histopathology of various Surgical specimen received from the surgical disciplines are examined only by department of Pathology. Thus, the data of Histopathology from department of Pathology should match and should be similar to the Histopathology data of other discipline.

There was discrepancy in this data from department of Pathology and other disciplines. In all the Assessment reports this data was submitted by the Institute only was evaluated by the Council. Thus, there were concerns about credibility of projected clinical material shown by the Institute.

There was discrepancy observed in the consumption of Blood unit in various departments and department of Pathology. There is a variability in the submission of the data by the Institute by the various departments.

The last date of communication of decision u/s. 10(A) has finished on 31/03/2013 for the Academic session 2013-14. Thus, it is not possible to review or consider the compliance for the said Academic Session by the Council. For ongoing PG training, it is mandatory to have sufficient clinical material including patient turnover, Lab Investigations, Radiological Investigations, Operative workload, Blood Consumption, etc. for the adequate and proper training of the student to build their competence for becoming independent practitioner, which cannot be compromised by MCI.

Based on the above observations and the request for further increase of seat cannot be considered, thus the earlier decision may be reiterated as per decision of board meeting held on 31.07.2013.

From the reading of the above quoted extract of the order it becomes clear that unexplained gap in service of some professors named therein raised serious doubt about the fulltime status of petitioners'' faculty in the mind of respondent no. 2. Likewise, respondent no. 2 has also referred to a discrepancy observed in the consumption of blood unit in various departments and department of Pathology with variability in the submission of data by the Institute regarding their different departments. Respondent no. 2 has thus apparently relied upon both these additional deficiencies apart from deficiency referred to in the show cause notice while rejecting the petitioners'' application for increase of seats in MS (General Surgery) course and for these additional deficiencies, no show cause notice was admittedly given to the petitioners which is a mandatory requirement under first proviso to sub-section (4) of section 10A of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956. Therefore, order dated 31.7.2013 cannot be sustained and we accordingly quash the same. The matter is remanded to respondent no. 2 to take a fresh decision in accordance with law by passing a reasoned/speaking order after giving an opportunity of hearing to the petitioners on all the deficiencies including any other legal embargo for increasing the seats requested for. This exercise be done as far as possible by 20.5.2014.

The petition is allowed to the extent mentioned above. No costs.