Madras HC allows Private Indian Medicine colleges to fill their vacant seats

Madras High Court has said that if the private Indian Medicine colleges have vacant seats remaining, they can fill up these seats on their own and it is not illegal.

While allowing a batch of writ petitions filed by 13 private colleges offering Indian medicine courses, Madras High Court's Justice GR Swaminathan has said that these colleges can fill up vacant seats on their own if the number of candidates sponsored by the selection committee of the Directorate of Indian Medicine and Homoeopathy (DIMH) was less than the total intake of the colleges.

The private Indian medicine colleges can fill the vacant seats also when the sponsored candidates fail to join the colleges. The court has said that instead of wasting these seats, the medical colleges can fill the seats without being worried about the legal issues.

The petitioners had challenged the DIMH insistence that only students sponsored by the selection committee should be admitted to both government and management quota seats and that the colleges must not provide admissions on their own.

Justice Swaminathan observed that in all cases before the court, there was a shortfall of sponsored candidates because the DIMH did not sponsor the entire intake or some of the sponsored candidates did not join the courses, resulting in vacant seats, as reported by The Hindu.

These seats remained vacant after the second and mop-up round of counselling.

Madras HC direction to DIMH in this case

Justice Swaminathan has directed the DIMH to allow all students admitted by the colleges on their own to sit for their examinations.

“I am satisfied that the college managements had duly intimated the selection committee about the resulting position. Since the seats would go waste and unfilled, the respective college managements admitted candidates on their own,” said Justice Swaminathan.

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