Relief for students: Telangana HC keeps cancellation of medical seats on hold

HYDERABAD: In huge relief to the MBBS students of TRR Institute of Medical Sciences, Patancheru, the Telangana High Court on Wednesday directed the National Medical Commission (NMC) and the Assessment and Ratings Board not to carry out their orders cancelling 150 new admissions in the college until the Commission takes a decision on the statutory appeal filed by the aggrieved college before it.

This judgement was delivered by a bench comprising Justices A Abhishek Reddy and M Sudhir Kumar while hearing the case filed by TRR Medical College. While the NMC and its medical Assessment and Ratings Board, which performed surprise inspections, claims that the institution lacked the necessary infrastructure, the college says that the same NMC gave it the authorisation to begin admissions a few months ago.

The college’s lawyer stated that the infrastructure would not vanish suddenly while questioning the NMC’s ruling directing the Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS) to reallocate the 150 students admitted to the TRR institution to other qualifying medical colleges. The entire inspection process and subsequent cancellation of admissions appear to be pre-planned, claimed the counsel. 

However, Gorantla Sriranga Pujitha, counsel for NMC, denied the charges, stating that they cannot allow medical institutions that lack the necessary facilities to produce subpar physicians since this would pose a greater risk to public health in the future.

After the bench stated that the NMC Act itself provides for a statutory appeal to the NMC’s committee, the college’s attorney stated that they had filed an appeal with the regulator. The panel instructed the NMC to rule on the appeal as soon as possible and not to act on its orders against TRR college until then.