HC: Shift Pathankot medical college students in 2 months

CHANDIGARH: Ruling that the Punjab Government could not abdicate its responsibility towards petitioner-students of Chintpurni Medical College and Hospital, Pathankot, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today directed their shifting to other medical colleges.

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 8

Ruling that the Punjab Government could not abdicate its responsibility towards petitioner-students of Chintpurni Medical College and Hospital, Pathankot, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today directed their shifting to other medical colleges.

“The state and the respondents are mandated to follow the law and now make arrangements to shift the petitioners to other medical colleges as per the procedure laid down by the Medical Council of India… Let the necessary exercise be concluded within two months,” Justice Ajay Tewari ruled. In all, 101 students would be shifted.

The directions came on a plea by Aakansha Mahajan and other petitioners against the Union of India and other respondents. The petitioner-MBBS students (2014-15 academic session) had last year moved the court for directing the official respondents to shift them to other recognised colleges in Punjab. Their argument was that the college was not in a position to impart necessary education for petitioners to become doctors.

Justice Tewari said the Union of India had barred the college from making admissions for the next two years. The ground for withdrawal of permission for future admissions was that the respondent college did not have necessary infrastructure. “This is precisely what the petitioners had been clamouring for since April 21, 2016,” Justice Tewari asserted.

Noting down the argument of the respondent-college that the Union of India’s order could not be taken as final as the Supreme Court had permitted it to challenge the same, Justice Tewari added that the state, the Medical Council of India and the Union had all concluded that the institute had failed to create adequate infrastructure.

Justice Tewari added that even if the respondent-college had not been shut down, it was “just limping along”. It had been involved in run-ins with the authorities since its inception in 2011.

“This is the second or third occasion when the admissions have been barred,” Justice Tewari observed.

The Bench said its only concern at this stage was the plight of the petitioners. For the past one-and-a-half years, they have been before the High Court. “To say the least, during this entire time their education has taken a back seat…. In my considered opinion, the scales are weighed in favour of the students,” Justice Tewari added.