'Time Has Come To Stop Backdoor Entries': Rajasthan High Court Imposes ₹25 Lakh Cost On Daswani Dental College, Refuses To Regularise Admissions
The Jaipur bench of Rajasthan High Court recently declined to regularise the admissions of the postgraduate dental students, who were admitted by a Kota college in 2017 without even having secured the admissions through the NEET PG process.The division bench of Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Anoop Kumar Dhand, however, said the candidates would be at liberty to proceed against...
The Jaipur bench of Rajasthan High Court recently declined to regularise the admissions of the postgraduate dental students, who were admitted by a Kota college in 2017 without even having secured the admissions through the NEET PG process.
The division bench of Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Anoop Kumar Dhand, however, said the candidates would be at liberty to proceed against the college to get a compensation of Rs 10 Lakh in accordance with the directions issued earlier by a single bench.
The division bench said time has come where such backdoor entries in educational institutions should be stopped and discouraged, while imposing a cost of Rs 25 Lakh on Daswani Dental College which had granted admission in the MDS Course.
"To permit any backdoor entry to any educational institution would be de hors the Rules and Regulations. The respondent-College was well aware of the fact that admissions cannot be granted to the appellants contrary to the regulations, even then, the College permitted the appellants to continue their studies in-spite of the directions by the Dental Medical Council to discharge the appellants. Such an intentional and deliberate violation of the Regulations by the respondent-College while granting admissions to the appellants in the academic year-2017 cannot be condoned."
Observing that the college distributed the degrees of MDS Course to the appellants in violation of the orders passed by it, the court directed the candidates deposit the degrees with the Rajasthan University of Health Sciences within one month from today, failing which the varsity would be at liberty to initiate contempt proceedings against them.
A single bench had earlier directed the university to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the erring officers who have admitted the appellants in MDS Course, 2017, and ordered the college to pay a compensation of Rs 10 Lakh to each of the candidates.
The Case
16 candidates were directly given admissions in the MDS Course by the college in contravention of the regulations. When the Dental Council of India directed the colleges to upload details of students admitted by them, it was found out of 20 candidates of the college, the 16 students had not gone through the NEET PG Test. The Executive Committee of the DCI in 2018 directed the college to discharge the students. However, the college failed to cancel the results.
In 2020, the 16 candidates approached the court seeking directions against the university to permit them to fill the online examination forms and to participate in MDS Final Year examination, "without disclosing the complete facts". In June 2020, the court allowed the appellants to provisionally participate in the examination. A division bench later directed the university to not declare the result of appellants without direction of court.
The candidates later also challenged the DCI letters and sought regularisation of their admissions. The petitions were dismissed by the single bench in August.
Arguments of the Appellants
The appellants before the division bench submitted that they got admission in MDS Course in May 2017 while the notification for NEET PG requirement was issued in November 2017. The court was told that since several seats of the MDS Course remained vacant due to the prescribed cut off of 50 percentile, a decision was taken by the PG Medical/ Dental Admission Board, 2017 to allow these candidates in mop up counselling round, who were not registered with the State NEET PG Medical and Dental Admission and Counselling Board, 2017
It was further submitted that since they had already completed their MDS course, cancellation of their admission at this stage would not serve any useful purpose, nor would prejudice be caused to any other students in case their admissions were to be considered valid.
Arguments of Daswani College
The college argued that there was no illegality committed since appellants were admitted into the MDS Course from open quota after mop up round. It further submitted that the NEET Notification, 2017 was issued only in November 2017, while the admissions had already been given in May 2017.
Arguments of University, Dental Council of India and PG Medical/Dental Admission Board
The University, Dental Council of India and the PG Medical/Dental Admission Board opposed the arguments of the applicants and the College.
They submitted that for getting admissions in MDS Course, candidates were required to pass the NEET PG Exam and participate in the counselling after following the statutory provisions. The appellants, however, got admissions straight away in the College through backdoor entry, they said.
Their admissions, were therefore, a result of collusion between the College and the appellants, especially since they were well aware of the 2007 Regulations, the court was told.
Since they continued with the course despite repeated communications by the Dental Council of India to the effect that their admissions were illegal, they cannot be allowed equitable relief on grounds that they have now already completed their course, argued the respondents.
Division Bench Ruling
The division bench said when suitable number of candidates were not available, a decision was taken to reduce the percentile and a chance was given to the candidates to participate in the mop up round counselling but "the Admission Board nowhere gave any opportunity to any of the dental Colleges to admit the students on their own after the mop up round."
"The undisputed fact is that in September, 2016, NBE issued an Information Booklet for NEET for admission to MDS Course, 2017. This Information Booklet clearly provides that each candidate is required to obtain minimum qualifying score, as provided in the NEET Entrance Examination," it said.
The court said it is clear that the appellants did not undergo the centralized counselling and they were well aware from the day one that their admissions in the College were irregular & in the teeth of the judgment of Supreme Court in Modern Dental College and Research Centre.
"The admissions were granted to the appellants by crossing and exceeding the jurisdiction by the respondent-College which was not vested in it. Obviously, the admissions were granted to the appellants collusively."
The court took note of similar cases where Supreme Court declined to grant any relief to the candidates.
"In view of the discussions made here-in-above, we find that the appellants did not undergo the centralized counselling and they were well aware from the day one that their admission in the respondent-college was irregular and illegal- being in the teeth of the judgments of the Hon'ble Apex Court in the cases of Modern Dental Medical College & Jainarayan Chouksey. The appellants are not entitled to get any equitable relief in view of the judgment of the Hon'ble Apex Court in the case of Abdul Ahad," it said.
The court said there is no merit in the appeals, while refusing to grant any relief to the students.
Case Title: Madhu Saini and Others v. Rajasthan University of Health Sciences and Others
Citation: D.B. Special Appeal Writ No. 1046/2022 in S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 6207/2020
Coram: Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Anoop Kumar Dhand
Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (Raj) 258