HC allows medical college to increase intake of students

One-liner: The Delhi HC has said augmentation of medical infrastructure was crucial to meet the rising need of qualified doctors and deserving colleges must not be denied the opportunity to enhance the strength of medical professionals as it allowed a Tamil Nadu college to increase the intake of students for NEET-UG 2022.

Raising the issue of denial: The HC's observation came while dealing with a petition by Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan Medical College and Hospital in Tamil Nadu raising the issue of denial of a request for an increased intake of students from 150 to 250.

Direction: It directed the authorities to permit the college to take admissions of 250 students in the ongoing counselling of NEET-UG 2022 for MBBS course and added that they shall forthwith issue necessary directions and intimate the order to competent authority/body of the Govt of Tamil Nadu to add 250 seats in its seat matrix.

Prior approval needed: The HC said under the scheme of the National Medical Commission Act, no medical college can increase its seats without obtaining prior approval from the Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB).

Evaluation: For the purpose of granting permission, MARB is entitled to conduct an assessment/ inspection of such colleges for evaluation of their performance vis-à-vis benchmarks set out in the law, it noted.

Interim order confirmed: The court confirmed an interim order of March 30, 2022, and held that the college was entitled to enhance its intake to 200 seats for the academic year 2021-22.

Source: PTI