End to DMAT Scam: SC hands over pvt medical colleges’ admissions to MP Govt

Sravani Sarkar

NewsBits.in

Bhopal: In a crucial ruling that would end the ongoing controversy over the admissions to private medical and dental colleges in Madhya Pradesh, the Supreme Court on Monday handed over the admissions to the state government.

Basically, it would mean that the controversial Dental and Medical Admission Test (DMAT) of the Association of Private Dental and Medical Colleges (APDMC) stands scrapped,  additional advocate general Purushendra Kaurav, told NewsBits.in.

Kaurav, who represented MP government in the SC, said that while state government had this year decided to conduct admissions to medical and dental colleges through National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), it can in future hold separate entrance test too, depending upon SC final orders in NEET matter.

Vyapam whistleblowers had been alleging that the DMAT was a bigger scam worth at least Rs 10,000 crores. Whistleblower and ex-MLA Paras Sakhlecha had approached the SC last year demanding scrapping of the DMAT. However, this year the private medical and dental colleges had announced three different admission tests to be held later in May.

The Supreme Court decision however comes in response to an ongoing petition of the APDMC that was pending since year 2009. The APDMC had challenged a MP High Court decision of 2009 that had allowed state government to conduct entrance test for private medical and dental colleges too.

When APDMC went to Supreme Court, as interim relief the SC allowed it to fill up 43% of seats in the private colleges through it own test while the other 42% was to be filled up by state government. Rest 15% seats were under NRI quota.

This arrangement was continuing till last year (2015) though the APDMC had to seek continuation of interim relief every year.

“This year however the SC decided to give final decision and held continuous hearings in February 2016 and reserved its judgment. The order was issued today, allowing the state government to fix the fees and also regulate the admissions through an entrance test for the private colleges,” Kaurav said.

The SC constitutional bench upheld the validity of the MP Private Professional Colleges (regulation of admission and fixation) Act 2007, under which the state government regulated the private colleges.

MCI OVERSEE COMMITTEE

The court also appointed a three-member committee to oversee the conduct the Medical Council of India, as the APDMC had made some complaints about the MCI actions and activities during the hearings, Kaurav said. The committee is headed by former chief justice of Indi RM Lodha.