Medical management admission procedure not transparent: Committee

Kochi, Aug 25 (UNI) The P A Mohammed Admission Supervisory Committee, set up to oversee the admissions made by a consortium of private medical colleges in Kerala, has said the procedure adopted did not appear to be fair and transparent.

The committee, constituted as per the Kerala Professional Colleges Act, in its order issued late last night after a sitting, said that further inquiry was necessary into the admissions made by the private medical college managements to the 50 per cent management quota seats.

The committee observed that it was clear that the final rank list of the students selected for the MBBS course was not prepared mainly on the basis of marks obtained in the entrance examination.

The committee said the Controller of Examinations had forwarded a list of candidates to the managements for interviews without intimating, either to the managements or the students, the marks obtained in the entrance examination.

It also noted that the Controller of Examination had not issued any advertisment or public notice with regard to the entrance test conducted by the consortium.

The next sitting of the committee is scheduled to be held here on August 29.

The Kerala high court had in July this year allowed the private professional college managements to go ahead with their selection procedure reserving 50 per cent management quota for the current academic year.

It also allowed the managements to collect the fees recommended by the K. T. Thomas Committee from the students of both management quota seats and government seats last year.

However, the court had granted liberty to the state government to proceed against the self-financing medical colleges if there was definite material showing that the test conducted by the consortium of managements for admission in medical stream was a farce and that the managements and the institution indulged in profiteering at the cost of merit.

The division bench had issued the order following an appeal by the Kerala Government against a single judge order which had allowed the managements to proceed with the admissions as per the procedure adopted last year and not as per the Self-Financing Professional College Regulation Act, 2006.

The state government has challenged the high court order in the Supreme Court, which is now hearing the appeal.

UNI ARC1615