Linguistic Minority Medical Colleges Bound by NMC PGMER to Share PG Medical Seats with Govt! HC Junks Institute’s plea
Chennai: The Madras High Court bench recently held that private linguistic minority medical colleges are bound by the provision of the Post-Graduate Medical Education Regulations (PGMER), 2023, earlier issued by the National Medical Commission (NMC) and also the agreements made with the Government to reserve the PG medical seats for the Government quota as per the applicable laws of the State of Union Territory.
The plea before the High Court bench was filed by Venkateshwara Medical College and Research Centre in Puducherry, which sought the Court to quash the July 22, 2024 notification issued by the Director-cum-nodal officer (Medical Education), Puducherry Government providing for surrendering of 50% of the PG medical seats for the government quota. In its plea, the college prayed to treat all of its PG medical seats as the All India Management Quota seats to be filled by the college itself.
It was argued by the petitioner institute that the PGMER 2023 does not contain any clauses similar to 9(7) of the PGMER, 2000, which now stands repealed and had the provision of Government quota seats. Therefore, the college argued that it did not need to provide such quota since being a minority institute.
Further, it was contended that even Clause 4.8 of the PGMER, 2023, stipulates that the reservation of seats in Medical Colleges/Institutions for respective categories shall be as per the applicable laws prevailing in the States/Union Territories. In this regard, the Puducherry Government has framed regulation namely, “The Pondicherry Private professional educational Institutions (Provision of reservation, Admission of students and fixation of fees) regulations, 2006”, pointed out the college’s counsel, further adding that Clause 14 of the Regulation that deals about the reservation of seats, has expressly excluded to the minority education institutions referred in Article 30 (1) of the Constitution of India and therefore, the reservation policy cannot be enforced against the petitioner.
On the other hand, the counsel for NMC pointed out that regulation for Chapter IV of PGMER, 2023 dealing with admissions and counselling clearly provides
that, reservation of seats in medical colleges/institutions for respective
categories shall be as per applicable laws prevailing in the
States/Union Territories, irrespective of the categories.
The counsel for the Government also referred to Clause 4.8 of the PGMER, 2023 and argued that the concerned clause empowers the State Government to implement their reservation policy in accordance with the prevailing law. He also submitted that the petitioner college had already entered into an agreement with the Government to share 50% of the seats at the time of commencement of the institute in compliance of the ‘essentiality certificate’.
However, while considering the matter, the HC bench rejected the petitioner’s argument that the ‘memorandum of agreement’ entered with the Government in 2015 applies only to the undergraduate (UG) seats and not for PG medical seats.
“It is obvious to note that nowhere in the terms of the agreement such prohibition is found to exclude the PG seats from seat sharing. It is also seen from the clause 2(viii) of the agreement that the post graduate level was also one of the subject matter of terms of the agreement. Therefore, the said issue is also answered against the petitioner. Hence, the petitioner is bound by the agreement and also to share the PG seats as well to the Government quota seats,” observed the HC bench.
“Article 30 of the Constitution of India guarantees fundamental right for the Minorities to establish and administer educational institutions. Thus, Article 30 of the Constitution does confer right alone, does not confer any special privilege upon the minorities. Hence, the prayer of the petitioner to treat all PG medical seats as All India Management Quota, is impermissible since the same will amount to special privilege. While exercising the powers under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, this Court can only enforce the valuable rights of the citizen and the same cannot be exercised to confer a privilege upon any person. Therefore, the petitioner cannot be permitted to treat their entire PG seats as All India Management Quota Seats. However, the situation would be different in the event of the minority quota seats goes unfilled. To avoid the wastage of the medical seats, necessary conversion process may be adopted in a manner known to law,” held the bench.
Relying on the earlier orders of the Supreme Court, the bench concluded that the petitioner college was not entitled to any relief as sought by them and accordingly dismissed the plea.
To view the order, click on the link below:
https://medicaldialogues.in/pdf_upload/madras-hc-order-263018.pdf
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