A CB-CID inquiry ordered by the Madras High Court has revealed the involvement of G. Selvarajan, former Secretary, Selection Committee, Directorate of Medical Education, in a decision to allow 13 private medical colleges to fill 90 postgraduate medical seats without following merit criteria in 2020-21.
Shocked by the revelation, Justice M. Dhandapani ordered the registration of an FIR against Dr. Selvarajan, the colleges concerned and all other accused. He also directed the Chief Secretary to stop the payment of pension to the former Secretary, who served in the rank of Additional Director of Medical Education, pending the outcome of the investigation.
The illegality had come to light following writ petitions filed by students who had either lost the chance of getting admitted to postgraduate courses or could not shift to a better branch of medicine due to non-conduct of mop-up counselling to fill 113 stray seats that were available in 14 private colleges after the regular counselling.
Concurring with their counsel S. Thanka Sivan, the judge also ordered the payment of a compensation of ₹4 lakh each to two students before the court, besides granting them liberty to pursue other legal remedies. He made it clear that the entire ₹8 lakh must be paid by the State government at the first instance, and then recovered from the pension of Dr. Selvarajan.
Lamenting that as many as 113 meritorious candidates had been deprived of valuable postgraduate medical seats due to the illegalities committed by the Selection Committee in collusion with the private colleges, the judge directed the High Court Registry to mark a copy of his order to the Chief Secretary as well as the Director-General of Police.
The DGP was directed to ensure that the team of CB-CID officials, who had inquired into the matter so far on court orders, continue to investigate the case even after the registration of the FIR, without being transferred elsewhere. The investigating officer was instructed to probe the issue thoroughly and bring every culprit to book.
The judge also called for a status report on the investigation by April 25. It was Justice N. Anand Venkatesh who first smelt a rat and ordered a CB-CID probe into the issue on October 28, 2020. Thereafter, the police officials continued to file periodical status report on the progress of the investigation.
The inquiry reports revealed that Dr. Selvarajan was appointed as Secretary of the Selection Committee on March 4, 2016 and was due to retire on July 31, 2019. However, he was re-employed in the same post for 19 months from July 31, 2019 to February 26, 2021, and had served from January 1 to February 26, 2021 without valid orders.
The reports also stated that he did not conduct mop-up counselling for the academic year 2020-21 despite ample time having been available before August 31, 2020, the last date for medical admissions. He also did not send a merit list to the private medical colleges on August 30, 2020 for filling the 113 stray vacancies.
Though two merit lists were uploaded on the selection committee's website, they did not contain the contact details of the candidates on the list, and this helped private colleges to make admissions on their own on August 31, 2020 on the pretext that the seats would otherwise go waste.
Later, while issuing provisional allotment orders to 90 candidates admitted by the 13 colleges on their own, the Selection Committee did not verify their rank in the merit list despite having the power to withhold provisional allotment orders to unmeritorious candidates, the inquiry reports stated.
