SC imposes Rs 5 crore fine; calls medical colleges ‘rotten’

Terming the state of medical colleges in the country as "rotten", the Supreme Court on Friday imposed a penalty of Rs 5 crore on an Odisha-based private medical college for raising the number of seats from 100 to 150 in an academic year and "playing with the future of students".

“A penalty of Rs 5 crores has been slapped on the Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) for playing with the future of its students and the mess that it has created for them. The amount will be deposited by KIMS in the Registry of this Court within six weeks from today,” a bench comprising Justices M B Lokur and N V Ramana said.

The bench, however, protected the students who were admitted in the year 2015-16 in the courses run by the medical college administration.

The top court also restrained KIMS from increasing the admission of students from 100 to 150 for the MBBS course for the academic year 2016-17 and 2017-2018.The order came on an appeal filed by MCI challenging the Orissa High Court's verdict which had permitted KIMS to admit additional 50 students in academic year 2015-16.

The private medical college had moved the High Court, challenging MCI's order disallowing admission in MBBS and BDS streams citing lack of adequate infrastructure.