The High Court in Andhra Pradesh has cancelled the admission of 34 MBBS students admitted in Apollo Institute of Medical Sciences and Research at Jubliee Hills in Hyderabad and had directed the CBI to probe allegations of irregularities in MBBS admissions of management quota seats in the private MBBS colleges in the state.
Taking a serious note of the irregularities, a division bench comprising Justice V. Eswaraiah and Justice N Ravi Shankar cancelled the admissions all the 34 students who have been admitted against the norms and ruled that they were not entitled to pursue MBBS in Apollo.
In view of this, the High Court on Wednesday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to conduct a thorough probe into the issue right from the stage of application filed by the Apollo Medical Institute for grant of permission under the MCI regulations to the stage of admissions relating to 40 seats under ‘C’ category (management quota) in the institute.
Earlier a petition was filed in the High Court against Apollo Medical College alleging that there were irregularities in the filling of management quota seats of the college. The petitioner stated that the college management had given wrong information regarding the admissions to the government and sold the seats for higher rates.
Responding to this, the High Court not only ordered a CBI enquiry but has also directed the Medical Council of India and NTR Health University to take action against the Institute for violating the undergraduate Medical Education Regulations of the MCI and to cancel its permission and affiliation.
“This court is constrained to give this direction having regard to the procedure adopted by the Apollo Medical Institute in granting admission to 34 students who are less meritorious than the first 40 of the merit list of 97 candidates,” the bench said.
The bench, while cancelling admission of 34 candidates, ruled that the candidates are not entitled to pursue the MBBS course at the Apollo institute. The bench further said that it cannot rule out the petitioners’ contention that the Apollo Institute had given admission to those 40 students by collecting capitation fee which is prohibited under the AP Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admissions and Prohibition of Capitation Fee) Act, 1983.
With the High court’s directive now the CBI is entitled to obtain the records relating to the action taken by the NTR University from the High Court registrar (judicial) to enable them to proceed to conduct inquiry forthwith.
The division further directed the CBI to take appropriate action against all responsible for the flaws in accordance with law, without any delay or loss of time, under the direct supervision of the CBI joint direct concerned who shall monitor the investigation from time to time.