Chennai: The Madras high court has directed the state government to submit a fresh proposal within two weeks, to the Board of Governors in Supersession of Medical Council of India for accommodating 108 students of defunct Ponnaiyah Ramajayam Institute of Medical Sciences (PRIMS) in 22 government medical colleges in the state.
A division bench comprising Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and P. Rajamanickam gave the directive while passing interim orders on an appeal filed by the state government, challenging an order of a single judge, directing the state government to accommodate the students of Ponnaiyah medical college in government medical colleges.
The bench said on receipt of such proposal from the state government, the Board of Governors in supersession of MCI, shall consider the said proposal on merits and in accordance with the relevant rules and regulations of the Indian Medical Council Act and forward the same to the ministry of health and family welfare department, Government of India within a further period of two weeks thereafter.
The ministry of health and family welfare of Government of India, on receipt of the said proposal from the Board of Governors, shall consider the same on merits and in accordance with law and pass appropriate orders within a further period of two weeks from the date of receipt of the proposal from the Board of Governors and the decision taken in that regard by the said ministry, shall be kept in a sealed cover and to be produced before this court on March 28, 2019, the bench added.
Additional advocate general Narmada Sampath, appearing for the state submitted that pursuant to an interim order of this court, the state government addressed a communication to the Union government stating that in so far as government medical colleges were concerned, seats were already been filled up and therefore, the government was not in a position to accommodate the students of Ponnaiyah medical college in the second year and 12 self financing medical colleges were willing to accommodate these students and also furnished their feasibility report to accommodate 10 to 15 students in each of the colleges and sought necessary permission for the same.
The Board of Governors also decided to permit the state government to relocate all these students to self financing medical colleges. However, despite such an accommodation, the students moved this court and a single judge passed an order directing the government to accommodate the students in government colleges. Therefore, the present appeal has been filed, she added.
Senior counsels P.Wilson and S.Silambanan submitted that as per the essentiality certificate, in the event of medical colleges fail to provide infrastructure facilities as per MCI norms and fresh admissions were stopped or the college was closed, the state government shall take over the responsibility of the students already admitted in the college and accommodate them in government medical colleges.
The private colleges referred to in the proposal sent by the state government also lack same infrastructural facilities in the event of increase in accommodation to accommodate the students and the correct and true facts have not been brought to the knowledge of MCI as well as the Union government. 108 students were on the street for no fault on their part. Therefore, the directions given by the single judge may not be stayed, they added.
In its order, the bench said on going through the directions given in the impugned order, this court was of the view that a positive direction has been given to the Union government to pass necessary orders increasing the number of seats in government medical colleges and approve the accommodation of students based on the decision of the Board of Governors. The Indian Medical Council Act and rules and regulations framed therein, clog the Medical Council of India as well as ministry concerned to act on the proposal in terms of such statutory provisions and therefore, this court was of the prima facie view that there cannot be any positive direction, directing the said authorities to act in a particular manner.
However, taking into consideration the plight of the students of PRIMS and for no fault on their part as to the misery being undergone by them on account of the fact that PRIMS was no longer functioning on account of lack of infrastructural facilities, this court was of the view that issuance of the abo
ve directions would meet the ends of justice, the bench added.
