Can Ramajayam med students study in govt colleges, Madras HC asks government

Chennai: The Madras high court on Thursday asked the state government to inform the court as to whether it could accommodate the second year students of defunct Ponnaiyah Ramajayam Medical Sciences in Manamai Nallar in Kancheepuram district, in the Junior Batch of second year students studying in government medical colleges.

 After Additional advocate general Narmada Sampath sought time to get instructions on this, Justice T.Raja adjourned to December 12 further hearing of a batch of petitions from SU Archana and 107 other students.

Earlier, AAG Narmada Sampath submitted that since the government medical colleges were overloaded as the students of Annai Medical Colleges were already accommodated in government medical colleges as per the earlier direction of this court, the second year students of Ponnaiyah medical colleges could be accommodated only in 10 self financing medical colleges.

In reply, senior counsels Silambannan, P.Wilson and S.Prabakaran, appearing for the students, relying upon the essentiality certificate issued by the state government, submitted that if anything happens to the self financing medical college, the state government has to take the responsibility and accommodate the students only in government colleges and not in other self financing medical colleges since there was an apprehension that some of the self financing medical colleges may also face the same problem like Ponnaiyah medical college in future and the students will be in trouble again. These students belong to the same 2016-2017 batch as that of Annai Medical college students. But, what these students wish is that they be accommodated in 2017-2018 batch of students in government medical colleges, they added.

When the case came up for hearing on Thursday, after the judge allowed the request of senior counsel Wilson to permit a student to explain the exact position, a girl student appeared before the judge and explained that there were two batch of students in the second year. One batch was a senior batch and they had already started doing their second year. The second batch was a junior batch and they started doing their second year only from October 2018 onwards. Though they belong to the same 2016-2017 batch as that of Annai Medical College students, who were already accommodated in the senior batch of second year students in government medical colleges, they may be permitted to join the junior batch of second year students, she added.