HC relief to Lord Budha Koshi Medical College, Saharsa, students

                                                                                  B N Singh Pappan

Saharsa : All the 108 students of Lord Budha Koshi Medical College and Hospital, Baijnathpur, Saharsa , will be admitted to different government medical March 20, 2017, or a date conveniently fixed in this regard at the earliest. This follows an oral order of Patna High Court on March 8, 2017.

A single bench of Patna High Court presided by Justice Ajay Kumar Tripathi, in its oral order, said, ” In terms of the previous direction dated March 1, 2017, the Additional Solicitor General of India has produced an e-mail communication dated March 3, 2017, which has been addressed to the Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, by the Secretary of Oversight Committee for MCI appointed by the Supreme Court of India. The communication confirms the position to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare that their recommendation for transfer and admission to the students of Lord Budha Koshi Medical College & Hospital, Saharsa, has been approved and accepted by the Oversight Committee. In the opinion of the Court, the formalities of approval required at various levels have now been carried out and achieved.”

The court said, ” Considering the above development and the communication, copy of which has been shared with the other parties to the dispute, the Court now feels that a direction is required to be given to all the Principals of the Colleges in question where recommendation for students by name has been made after a draw of lots, which was held in terms of a direction of this Court. Since enough time has been wasted in the procedure and the litigation to reach the position arrived at today, no further time is required to be wasted in any other formalities. The Court, therefore, directs that the list, which has been annexed as Annexure-D in the affidavit of the Director, Health Services, Government of Bihar, shall be used for grant of admission in the Medical colleges. The students are free to approach the concerned Principal of the College on March 20, 2017, with the list and a copy of the order passed today and the Principal of the concerned Medical Colleges will take steps for grant of admission to the students either on that day or a date conveniently fixed in this regard at the earliest.”

Since the private managements of the Medical Colleges are not co-operating and are making all kinds of excuses to release the students, the Principal of the Colleges will not insist upon any kind of NOC or a transfer certificate for grant of admission, the court said.

” The Court is informed that the authorities of the Lord Budha Koshi Medical College and Hospital are withholding the original educational certificates starting from matriculation onwards and the same is being used for bargaining. A direction is issued to the Principal/Chairman or any authority, who is in-charge of the Lord Budha Koshi Medical College and Hospital, that they will release all the documents of the students without any slackness, otherwise the Court may be compelled to consider that there is deliberate violation of the direction issued by this Court and they would be required to be dealt with under contempt jurisdiction since they have a motive in frustrating the directions of this Court and using the students as pawns,” the court said. The matter will again be listed on March 29, 2017.

The MCI had allotted 100 MBBS seats to the college in 2012. But, soon the shortcoming in the college came on the  surface and the matter reached the MCI, which stopped allocation of seats the next year.  The college management moved the court which granted conditional admission of 15 students from 2013-16. Unhappy with standard of teaching, the college students move Patna High Court in four groups in 2016.