HC sets aside single judge order on unclaimed medical seats

The Madras High Court today set aside the order of a single judge and directed the state government to fill 74 medical seats that were unclaimed under all India quota.
A division bench, comprising Justice Satish K Agnihotri and Justice K K Sasidharan, said the state had moved the Supreme Court to extend the deadline for completing the admission process by filling the seats surrendered by Director General of Health Services (DGHS).
"The Supreme Court granted permission to complete the process. The state is, therefore, entitled to make admission from the state list and fill the vacant seats," the bench said, concurring with the submissions made by the Advocate General A.L. Somayaji.

The single judge had directed the state to allot seats as per the CBSE list.
The state submitted that the single judge had erred in passing such an order as it would not be possible for the state to take up CBSE list and grant admissions as students from different states and their reservation status was not in public domain.
The bench in its order further said, "Though it is the prerogative of DGHS to conduct online counselling before the last date of September 30 and fill the seats, no such exercise was conducted."

The single judge had allowed a petition filed by one Santhosh who had secured 12485th rank in All India Pre-Medical Entrance Test (AIPMT) seeking admission in the DGHS quota.

This was challenged by the state government stating that the petitioner was ranked at least 7,717 ranks below the last person allotted an MBBS seat in Tamil Nadu. Hence he could not be allotted the seat as per DGHS quota.
As DGHS did not conduct online counselling before the last date of September 30 to fill the seats, the candidate cannot claim the seat under DGHS quota, the state submitted.
The bench then allowed the appeal enabling the state to proceed with the allotment process of 74 seats to the candidates under the state quota.