The High Court of Karnataka has refused to interfere with the decision of the National Medical Council (NMC) of not renewing the permission to Mangaluru-based G.R. Medical College for MBBS course for the academic year 2022-23 due to deficiencies in facilities, and to shift 150 students, who were admitted to the college during 2021-22, to other medical colleges in the State.
A Division Bench comprising Justice P.S. Dinesh Kumar and Justice T.G. Shivashankare Gowda passed the order while dismissing the petitions filed by the college, which had questioned the decision of the NMC to not renew permission, and the orders of the NMC and the State government to transfer students to other medical colleges.
The NMC had refused to renew permission after deficiencies of teaching staff by 71%, deficiency of resident doctors by 79%, Out Patient Department attendance of only 30%, bed occupancy of 10%, etc., were found during the surprise inspection conducted on September 5 and 6, 2022.
The Bench refused to accept the contention of the college that the inspection was conducted contrary to the Regulation 8(3)(1) of the Establishment of Medical Colleges Regulation, 1999, which bars inspection of medical institutes two days prior and after the holidays declared for important religious and other festivals. The college had claimed that it had declared a holiday for Onam on September 5.
However, the Bench rejected college’s claim on finding that Onam was on September 8 in 2022 and there was no holiday declared by the Centre or State government in Karnataka.
The Bench also said that NMC had given sufficient opportunity of hearing to the college before refusing to renew permission, and found no fault in the decisions of the authorities to shift the existing students in the interest of their academic career. A majority of the 150 students had filed petitions seeking transfers.
