SC order: 3 Punjab medical institutes’ admissions to become invalid

In an embarrassment to the Punjab government, the MBBS and BDS seats filled by three private medical colleges in Punjab over the past weeks are set to be declared null and void following Supreme Court’s Friday order, in which the apex court upheld the centralised counselling for such admissions.

The Punjab government last month allowed Adesh Medical University (Bhatinda) and Christian Medical College (Ludhiana) to hold independent counselling for the admissions. The SGPC-run Sri Guru Ravi Das Institute of Medical Sciences in Amritsar, too, was allowed to fill 50% of management quota seats on its own.

After the SC verdict on Friday, the government went for damage-control by issuing directions to these three private institutes against holding any fresh admissions till further orders.

“For now, fresh intake has been stopped. A decision on cancelling the already-filled seats and holding fresh centralised counselling will be taken after taking legal opinion from Punjab’s attorney general’s office, which has already been approached,” said director, medical research and education, Dr Manjit Kaur Mohi.

About 90% seats (MBBS and BDS) are been filled at these institutes and classes were already on. Only seven seats remain to be filled at Ludhiana’s Christian Medical College for which second counselling was scheduled for September 26, stands cancelled now.

Chandigarh-based pre-medical test trainer Arvind Goyal said the SC order has exposed the Punjab government’s ‘favouritism’ to private institutes. Meanwhile, Baba Farid University, which held the centralised counselling for all other colleges, too, has been asked not to hold any fresh counselling till further instructions.