MCI says no to extra seat at Pt Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College


After dawdling for over three months, the Medical Council of India (MCI) has turned down the request of Pt Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College (JNMC), Raipur, to allow an additional seat to accommodate a student who was erroneously admitted in excess of the sanctioned 150 seats for the MBBS course. 

As a result of the decision, which was confirmed by MCI secretarySanjay Shrivastava, the extra student would have to be removed, putting a big question mark over his career. 

According to the college's claim, the unfortunate student was admitted erroneously as the admissions were conducted online for the first time and the staff was not well versed with the system. After realizing their mistake of having admitted 151 students against the sanctioned strength of 150 seats, the college sought the sanction of an additional seat from the MCI. The process was started in October last year and it has taken over three months for the decision to come through. 

Things appear to be far from over yet as confusion still exists over the method of identifying the extra student. The college authorities claim that the last student on the merit list would have to go. Since there was one single list for the entire state, it is possible that the extra student is currently studying in any of the other two medical colleges in the state and not at JNMC. 

However, the director of medical education (DME), Dr Subeer Mukherjee, did not agree with the merit formula being put forth by the college authorities for identifying the extra student. Talking to TOI, Dr Mukherjee said that they had not received any information of the decision taken by the MCI. When queried about the merit criteria suggested by the college authorities, Dr Mukherjee said, "This is incorrect. The extra student was admitted here at Raipur and not at the other two colleges." 

At the time when these admissions were conducted there were three medical colleges in the state, one each at Raipur, Jagdalpur and Bilaspur with a sanctioned strength of 300 seats. Subsequently 50 more seats were added to the newly formed AIIMS in Raipur. Meanwhile sources said the MCI was not competent to take a decision on this matter as an apex court judgment explicitly disallows any increase in the number of seats in a medical college after July 15 of the admission year. 

Officials say that court may be the last resort for the resolution of this issue. 

As a result of the decision, which was confirmed by MCI secretary Sanjay Shrivastava, the extra student would have to be removed, putting a big question mark over his career.

Popular posts from this blog

PG Doctors of India must work not more than 48 Hr/week: SC

Sarita murder case: Details of the police version