Supreme Court postpones appeals of self-financing medical colleges

Thiruvananthapuram: Supreme Court on Tuesday postponed the appeals of three self-financing medical colleges, whose admissions were cancelled, to Wednesday. The appeals were for 100 seats in Al-Azhar Medical College and Super speciality Hospital, Thodupuzha and 150 seats each in  DM Institute of Medical Sciences, Wayanad and Mount Zion Medical College, Pathanamthitta the apex court cancelled for lack of Medical Council of India (MCI) approval.

When the appeals were taken up, the MCI argued that any decision on the issue should be taken only after considering their position on self-financing medical colleges.  The colleges whom the MCI had earlier denied approval for admissions had moved the high court and got a favourable verdict, which the MCI challenged in the Supreme Court. Around 50 medical colleges had moved the apex court in the past few weeks seeking renewal of permissions the regulator had denied. Another batch of 50-odd cases was pending since 2016. Last year, the SC-appointed Lodha committee allowed conditional licences to many of them, which the regulator revoked later.