Madras HC upholds FIR against 13 private medical colleges for illegal filling of PG seats

Madras High Court upheld an order directing the CB-CID to register FIR against 13 private medical colleges and all others involved in filling up 90 postgraduate medical seats without following merit criteria in 2020-21.

First Division Bench of Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice N. Mala of Madras High Court has upheld an order directing the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) to register a First Information Report (FIR) against 13 private medical colleges and all others involved in filling up 90 postgraduate medical seats without following merit criteria in 2020-21.

The bench also upheld the order passed by Justice M. Dhandapani on February 25 directing the state government to pay compensation of INR 4 lakh each to the meritorious students who could not obtain seats due to illegality.

The court interfered with the single judge’s direction to the Chief Secretary to stop the retirement benefits to G. Selvarajan, former secretary of the selection committee in the Directorate of Medical Education (DME). They agreed with his counsel that the benefits could not be denied before conducting the departmental inquiry, as reported by The Hindu.

Chief Justice directed the state government to ensure that the disciplinary proceedings started against the appellant get completed within six months and any delay in completing the proceedings would be viewed against the disciplinary authority and no extension would be given.

The Background

The illegality came to notice in October 2020, when Justice N. Anand Venkatesh unearthed it and ordered a CB-CID probe to identify if there was a conspiracy between the officials of the DME and the 13 private medical colleges in filling up the postgraduate seats. The investigation revealed the involvement of Dr. Selvarajan.

Justice Dhandapani order FIR against all those concerned and issued a slew of directions which were challenged by the former secretary of the selection committee by way of the present appeal.

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