Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana high court has observed that time has come for the NMC to thoroughly re-look and introspect the manner in which the limited permissions or provisional recognition and affiliations are being granted. The Punjab and Haryana high court has fined White Medical College and Hospital, formerly known as Chintpurni Medical College and Hospital, Pathankot, ₹10 lakh for “misleading” the court. The order was passed during the proceedings in which the college had challenged Medical Assessment & Rating Board’s (MARB) January order for transfer of its students of academic year 2021-22 and 2022-23 to other medical institutes over lack of infrastructure.
The court observed that the petitioner college had committed repeated and continuous defaults in fulfilling the required norms. It was not appropriate on the part of the National Medical Commission (NMC) to grant conditional permission to the petitioner college to admit students for the academic session 2020-21 and 2021-22, it said, adding that time has come for the NMC to thoroughly re-look and introspect the manner in which the limited permissions or provisional recognition and affiliations are being granted. “This practice has resulted in putting at risk the career of the innocent students as well as the health of community which would include experts and their families,” it added. The provisional admission was granted to the college in 2021 and 2022 to admit students, even as norms with regard to requisite infrastructure were yet to be fulfilled.
The court held that the MARB has the power to order en bloc shifting of the students and dismissing the plea from the college. The court also found that the college has not disclosed the various orders passed by the courts from time to time while ordering en bloc shifting of the students in the previous batches and the orders passed by the Supreme Court. “Even the students who are likely to be adversely affected were not impleaded as respondents. All these facts have been stated by the students in their written statements who subsequently became party while filing applications,” the court said, adding that college has very “conveniently” disclosed facts from previous controversies and not revealed the orders which were passed against it. The college since its inception in 2011 has remained in news over lack of infrastructure. Observing that the college intentionally suppressed facts of the adverse judicial orders passed against petitioner from 2012 to 2017 by different courts, it imposed a cost of ₹10 lakh, which it said should be deposited with the PGIMER Poor Patients Welfare Funds.