The Supreme Court on Wednesday slapped a fine of Rs 5 crores on the Saraswati Education Charitable Trust, in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh for violating the Medical Council of India (MCI) regulations while granting admission to 71 MBBS students in the second year in 2017-18.
A two-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao and also comprising Justices S Ravindra Bhat, passed the order after going through the writ petition filed by Saraswati Educational Charitable Trust.
"National Medical Commission has been directed to create a trust with this money for assistance to needy students in Uttar Pradesh," the bench led by Justice Rao said in his order.
"The petitioner-College (Saraswati Education Charitable Trust) is directed to deposit Rs 5 crores in the Registry of this court within a period of 8 weeks from today. The petitioners are directed not to recover the amount from the students in any manner whatsoever," the bench of the top court said, in its order.
The top court also said that being aware of the fact that admissions cannot be made from students not allotted by one of the Respondents, the College admitted 132 students on its own.
Thereafter, the College permitted the students to continue their studies in spite of the direction by the MCI to discharge the students not being stayed. Intentional violation of the Regulations by the Petitioner-College while granting admission to 132 students in the first year MBBS course for the academic year 2017-2018 cannot be condoned, the apex court said in its order.
"We direct the National Medical Commission to constitute a Trust which shall include the Accountant General of the State of Uttar Pradesh, an eminent educationist and a representative of the State of Uttar Pradesh as Members of the Trust," the bench said.
The Trust constituted to manage the number of Rs 5 crores to be deposited by the petitioner-college shall extend financial assistance to the needy students seeking admission to medical colleges in Uttar Pradesh.
( With inputs from ANI )
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