SC slams Bihar for poor condition of medical colleges

With some medical colleges run by the Bihar government found to be deficient in facilities and declared unfit for further admissions, the Supreme Court on Monday slammed the state government, saying: "You are going to treat human beings, not animals."

"What would happen to the patients if you have an infrastructure like this? You are going to treat human beings, not animals. In a previous judgment, we have already said you are producing half-baked doctors," a bench of Justice S. Abdul Nazeer and Justice Indu Malhotra said while censuring the Bihar government.

The governments of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Jharkhand had approached the apex court against a Medical Council of India (MCI) order prohibiting this year's admission of students in medical colleges after they were found to be deficient in facilities.

As the counselling for admission to MBBS course is set to begin from Tuesday, the state governments said they have taken various steps to remove or rectify all the deficiencies pointed out by the MCI and assured the bench that they were committed to take the measures and steps to rectify the remaining deficiencies as soon as possible.

After the Centre asked the bench to let the colleges take admission of students and the MCI will inspect them again after three months, the court said: "We hereby direct that in view of the undertakings submitted by the Principal Secretary of each of the three states, permission is granted to the aforesaid government medical colleges for admission to the MBBS course for the current academic year 2018-19.

"The seats in the aforesaid government medical colleges will be included in the seat matrix, for which counselling is scheduled to take place on June 19," stated the order.

It added that the MCI will carry out an inspection after three months to "verify that the state governments have in fact carried out compliance to rectify the deficiencies pointed out".

If the deficiencies are not removed within the period specified, "the Principal Secretary of each of the states will be held personally responsible for non-compliance with the orders passed by this court", said the bench.

The court earlier asked the state governments to explain by June 18 the nature of deficiencies, pointed out by the MCI, if those are rectified or not, a clear-cut timeline within which those deficiencies will be rectified.

The MCI had disallowed any admission in three medical colleges run by the Bihar government -- Government Medical College, Bettiah, Vardhaman Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS), Pawapuri, and Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College and Hospital (ANMMCH), Gaya.

Uttar Pradesh's four medical colleges which were denied by the MCI to admit students were Government Allopathic Medical College, Banda, Government Medical College (Shaikh-UlHind-Maulana Mohmood Hassan Medical College), Saharanpur, Government Medical College and Super Specialty Hospital, Azamgarh, and Rajkiya Medical College, Jalaun.

M.G.M. Medical College of Jharkhand failed to get the MCI's clearance for admission due to lack of requisite facilities.

--IANS

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