Extension Of Time For PG Medical Courses Counseling Cannot Be Granted Merely Because Seats Are Lying Vacant: SC [Read Judgment]

The Supreme Court, on Friday, observed that merely because the seats are lying vacant, it is not a ground to grant extension of time for PG Medical Courses Counseling and grant further opportunity to fill up vacant seat.

Education Promotion Society for India had approached the extension of time to  medical colleges/deemed universities for carrying out counseling for P.G. courses since large number of seats in these colleges are lying vacant.

The bench comprising Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Surya Kant said that extension cannot be granted just because some seats are lying vacant without there being any other justification. It also noted that the society want a general extension of time not on account of any particular difficulty faced by any individual college or university but generally on the ground that a large number of seats for the P.G. courses are lying vacant

"This Court however can take judicial notice of the fact that every year large number of nonclinical seats remain vacant because many graduate doctors do not want to do post-graduation in non-clinical subjects. Merely because the seats are lying vacant, in our view, is not a ground to grant extension of time and grant further opportunity to fill up vacant seats. The schedule must be followed. If we permit violation of schedule and grant extension, we shall be opening a Pandora's box and the whole purpose of fixing a time schedule and laying down a regime which strictly adheres to time schedule will be defeated. " 

The court further noted that in the schedule prescribed, there are three rounds of counselling, the first round, the second round and the mop¬up round. The mop-up round was to be completed by 31.5.2019 and if some seats remain vacant even after the mop-up round it cannot be helped, the court said and dismissed the plea.

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