'National Medical Commission Expected To Act Fairly' : Supreme Court Imposes Rs.10 Lakh Cost On NMC For Challenge To Medical College's Approval

The Supreme Court recently deprecated the National Medical Commission (NMC) for raising a frivolous challenge to the grant of approval for the expansion of a medical college. Reminding that the NMC should act reasonably and fairly, being an organ of the State, the Court imposed a cost of Rs.10 lakhs on it.

"Prima facie, we find that the attitude of the NMC is not of a model litigant. The NMC is an organ of the State and is expected to act in a fair and reasonable manner," observed a bench comprising Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan.

The NMC filed the Special Leave Petition against a direction of the Kerala High Court to grant permission to KMCT Medical College upon the College filing an undertaking.

By letter dated 27.02.2023 issued by the Medical Assessment & Rating Board (MARB), the Medical College had initially been granted approval for increase of seats from 150 to 250 for the academic year 2023- 24. However, by a subsequent letter dated 05.04.2023 issued by the MARB, it was withdrawn.

By letter of disapproval dated 29.06.2024, the MARB had granted disapproval to the respondent-Medical College, giving two reasons: (i) Certificate of Affiliation (COA) is not submitted and (ii) the matter is sub judice in the Court.

The Court opined that the matter being sub judice could not have been the ground of disapproval of the proposal. If the NMC had any doubts, it could have clearly approached the Court concerned and sought clarification, the Court said.

Also, the Court noted that the COA was granted on on 12.08.2024. However, the NMC argued that the grant of permission has to be considered on an annual basis and that the that earlier disapproval was for the academic year 2023-2024, whereas in the present year, the NMC is concerned with the academic year 2024-2025. It was submitted there is no inspection insofar as the academic year 2024-2025 is concerned and, therefore, the High Court was not justified in passing the order which is challenged before this Court.

The Supreme Court refused to accept this argument, particularly in view of the fact that the College had been running for last 18 years.

"Making a party run from Court to Court to seek permission, specifically when the institute concerned is not a new institute and has been running for the last 18 years, in our view, is only an attempt to harass the institution. Particularly, when the approval granted earlier for the academic year 2023-2024 was withdrawn, no deficiency, except non-grant of COA, was pointed out," the Court observed.

Terming the NMC's petition an "abuse of the process of law", the Court dismissed it with a cost of Rs.10 lakhs. The cost of Rs.5,00,000/- shall be deposited in the Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association to be used for the purpose of Library and the cost of Rs.5,00,000/- shall be deposited with the Supreme Court Bar Association Advocates Welfare Fund.

Case Title : The National Medical Commission v. The Principal KMCT Medical College

Citation : 2024 LiveLaw (SC) 683

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