Above: Medical college students taking classroom lessons (representative image)

The apex court on Thursday (June 14) directed Centre and Medical Council of India (MCI) to file affidavit suggesting solutions where under the medical colleges run by Bihar government could be allowed to function.

The bench of Justices U U Lalit and Deepak Gupta was hearing the petition by the Bihar government challenging the proposal of the Centre to refuse admission to 250 MBBS candidates in three of its government medical colleges.

The Centre had denied the admissions after taking cognizance of MCI inspection report on medical colleges across India including three in Bihar. These three colleges were Government Medical College, Bettiah, Vardhman Institute of Medical Sciences, Pawapuri, and Anugrah Narayan Medical College, Gaya.

The bench during the course of proceedings found out that similar issues were also being encountered by the two other states — Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh.

Taking note of that, the bench directed three states — Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh to file affidavit on the deficiencies of its government medical colleges and whether these (deficiencies) had been rectified or not by June 18.

It further directed Principal Secretaries and Chief Secretaries of these states to lend support to the move.

The matter will again be heard on June 18.

—India Legal Bureau