Chandigarh: While considering a plea filed by White Medical College and Hospital, previously known as Chintpurni Medical College and Hospital, the Punjab and Haryana High Court recently slapped a fine of Rs 10 lakh on the institute for "misleading" the court.
Filing the plea, the college was contesting an order issued in January by the Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB) of the National Medical Commission (NMC), through which the Commission directed the transfer of students from the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 batches to other medical colleges.
However, while considering the matter, the HC Division bench comprising Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Anil Kshetarpal observed that the college had repeatedly and continuously failed to comply with the required standards.
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As per the latest media report by the Times of India, the HC bench also opined that it was inappropriate for NMC to grant the college conditional permission to admit MBBS students during the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 academic sessions.
Hindustan Times has reported that the Court further added that NMC needed to thoroughly re-look and introspect the manner in which the limited permissions of provisional recognition and affiliations were being granted.
"This practice has resulted in putting at risk the career of the innocent students as well as the health of community which would include experts and their families," it said.
Upholding the Medical Assessment and Rating Board's authority to order the mass transfer of the students, the HC Division bench dismissed the plea filed by the college.
"Even the students who are likely to be adversely affected were not impleaded as respondents. All these facts have been stated by the students in their written statements who subsequently became party while filing applications," it further observed.
Additionally, the HC bench took note of the fact that the college did not disclose the previous court orders. Taking action against the college's deliberate concealment of adverse judicial orders from 2012 to 2017, the Court imposed a cost of Rs 10 lakh on the college and directed the college to deposit the amount with the PGIMER Poor Patients Welfare Fund.
Chintpurni Medical College Controversy:
Medical Dialogues had extensively reported about the controversial shutdown of Chintpurni Medical College after the Board of Governors of the erstwhile Medical Council of India (MCI) had found that the institute was admitting students without the MCI approval ever since its inception in 2011. In addition, the college did not have the necessary infrastructure and did not provide adequate facilities for the purpose of medical studies.
Consequently, the Executive Committee of MCI recommended debarring the College from admitting students for two academic years i.e. 2017-18 and 2018-19 and to encash the bank guarantee of Rs 2 crores that was furnished by the petitioner at the time of grant of recognition dated 26.09.2016. The Central Government had accepted the MCI recommendation.
Following this, the 2011-12 and 2014-15 batch of students were shifted to other medical colleges in the state on the directions of the Supreme Court after the students sought to transfer to other medical colleges in the state. The top court had also dismissed the plea challenging the Central Government orders and had stated that the college would be entitled to pursue the permission for the academic years 2019- 20 and 2020-21 after the period of the ban.
However, in 2022 NMC granted its permission to Chintpurni Medical College to admit students in 150 MBBS seats after inspecting the infrastructure of the medical college.
The controversy started once again last year after a five-member panel of BFUHS found glaring deficiencies in the medical college in terms of patient load as well as faculty and infrastructure. The BFUHS panel had stated in a report that the medical college does not have adequate infrastructure and the careers of MBBS students at the medical college were getting jeopardized because of the absence of patients, infrastructure, and teachers. Following this, the Punjab Government took cognisance of the matter.
In a letter directed to the Director of NMC, the State Additional Chief Secretary of Medical Education and Research, Anurag Agarwal had referred to the issue as a matter of grave concern and pointed out that despite earning the NMC nod, the college was not complying with the statutory regulations and guidelines.
Following this, NMC conducted an inspection and found serious deficiencies in terms of faculty, patient load and infrastructure. Based on this, NCM refused permission to the medical college to admit MBBS students for the academic year 2023-2024.
Earlier this year, granting relief to the medical students who had been admitted to Chintpurni Medical College, Punjab, and Haryana High Court had directed the NMC and Punjab Government to shift the students of Chintpurni Medical College in Pathankot to other colleges.
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