Admission cancelled: HC directs Amritsar medical college to compensate HP youth

Four months after his admission into MBBS course at a medical college in Amritsar, a Himachal Pradesh youth has lost his seat as his caste certificate was not found in accordance with the prospectus.The Punjab and Haryana high court refused to interfere with the decision of college in cancelling his admission, however, asked the college to refund the fee deposited by him give him Rs 2 lakh compensation for negligently giving him admission, thus wasting his one year and in the process denying him an opportunity to take admission in another college.

The student, Yudhanshu Anugural had taken admission at Government Medical College, Amritsar on September 19 as a scheduled caste (SC) category candidate after qualifying Punjab Pre Medical Entrance Test (PMET-2016). After initial verification of documents, he was allowed to deposit fee. However, upon scrutiny at a later stage, the college authorities found that his caste certificate was issued by authorities in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh and not in Punjab, making him ineligible as per state government rules. Thus, his admission was cancelled, following which he had moved high court in October.

The student had also qualified for a BDS course at Dr Yashwant Singh Parmar Government Medical College, Nahan, Sirmour, Himachal Pradesh, but had opted not to attend counselling there in view of his admission in MBBS course.

However, the high court stated that as per January 1996 government instructions, the candidate had to be a resident of Punjab and should belong to the caste, recognised as a SC by the state. However, the boy’s certificate was of a SC category in HP. His admission was purely provisional, which is clear from various documents on record and also that it would be subject to verification as per the prospectus, the HC observed further stating that in such circumstances, it would not be justified to regularise the admission, since as per the terms of the prospectus he was not entitled for the same.

Meanwhile in his place, the high court directed that a girl student, Aneesha Sharma, who was pursuing a BDS course and had challenged the BFUHS decision of reducing seats in sports category from 5 to 4, be admitted. A national level lawn tennis player, she had taken admission in a BDS course but had challenged BFUHS decision of reducing the number of seats from 5 to 4 for sportspersons during admission process.