The West Bengal government has formed a special team to assess private medical college admissions after the management quota fiasco in KPC medical college came to light. The Calcutta High Court on September 5, 2016 ordered scrapping the list of 77 selected medical candidates by the KPC medical college in their management quota for MBBS course, on grounds of widespread irregularities in admission process.
In his judgment on Monday Justice Debangshu Basak stated that management quota admission process of the KPC Medical College is an arbitrary one and didn’t follow the admission guidelines set by MCI. The petitioner Anindya Lahiri, who is a High Court advocate, stated that KPC had declared ‘first come first Serve’ condition for the admissions on its website.
This declaration however, went against a Supreme Court judgment passed in May 2016 stating that all medical admissions should be done through NEET ranks in the country. Justice Basak further ordered that the college complete the admission procedure by September 30, 2016 on the basis of NEET ranks. He also asked the college authority to submit the merit list of students who had taken admission in the management quota in the last five years. The state medical education department will send a team to KPC Medical College once the admission procedure resumes.
According to the MCI website, the total intake of KPC Medical College in MBBS course is 150. There will be a state share of seats along with NEET rank based admissions in the college, leaving behind no scope for ‘first come first serve’ policy in management seats for the college. PaGalGuy mailed the college authorities this morning seeking answers and also phoned. However, both the efforts met with no response. The college authority has posted a notification in the website stating, ‘The college authorities have decided to seek legal advice on the issue. Future updates will be available in the official website of the college.’
The Director of Medical Education, West Bengal, Susanta Kumar Bandopadhyay, while speaking to this PaGalGuy correspondent said, “Admission procedure for the private medical colleges in West Bengal is smooth at the moment and will finish on time. We haven’t received any complaint regarding admissions.”
**Update
The Principal of KPC Medical College responded to PaGaLGuy via e-mail on September 8, 2016 stating, “Hon’ble High Court of Calcutta has issued an order regarding admission in MBBS course in this college this year. We are contemplating seeking legal advice.”