New Delhi: The fate of over 600 MBBS students hangs in uncertainty with the National Medical Commission (NMC) putting out a public notification this week that all students who were granted admission by the central, state and private medical colleges across the country after the Supreme Court’s September 30 deadline were to be “discharged immediately”.
As per the notification issued on October 19, NMC which regulates medical education in the country, said that it has learned “about the conduct of UG (undergraduate) MBBS counseling (both through online and offline mode) by several states (such as the state of Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal, etc.) beyond the cut-off date of September 30.”
NMC reiterated that by means of a public notice on July 27, it had informed all stakeholders about the cut-off date for conducting the counselling sessions and therefore, “any admission or conduct of counselling beyond the cut-off date is in violation of the notice issued by NMC as well as in violation of the judgements passed by the Supreme Court.”
In 2016, the apex court had fixed the time schedule for processing of the admission of not just the UG MBBS course but also for post graduate and super-specialty medical and dental courses after consulting all state and union territories, the Union government and other stakeholders.
Asking all stakeholders to therefore “strictly adhere” to the counselling session fixed by the NMC for the academic session of 2023-24 for the undergraduate MBBS course, the notification issued by Shambhu Sharan Kumar, director of undergraduate medical education board, said the admissions of who were accommodated after the September 30 deadline would be declared invalid and “the students admitted, if any, shall be discharged immediately”.
Kumar also underlined that in 2019, the SC had stated that seats lying vacant would not be a “justifiable reason” for the institutes to extend the cut-off date or allow admissions beyond it.
If such students were asked to go, hundreds of MBBS seats would remain vacant across the country, unless the SC further extends the September 30 deadline. Most of the students who are to lose their admission had responded to the advertisements put out by medical colleges seeking admission. According to a Times of India report, “The Bihar Combined Entrance Competitive Examination Board had advertised on October 9 inviting applications for a stray vacancy round.” The report said, “Officials in Bengal said the number of vacant seats was still being compiled.”
“Admission to more than 350 MBBS seats in Puducherry was done after September 30,” the report added.
The news report also underlined that several students had left seats in others streams to join the MBBS course and would now be staring at losing an academic year. The report said while more than 600 students are likely to lose their admission for violation of the NMC guidelines by the institutes, mismanagement of the counselling process “will result in more than 2000 MBBS seats across the country going waste.”
The NMC had recently issued a deadline of October 20, 2023, for all medical colleges to provide details of the first-year MBBS admissions for the 2023-24 academic year.