Can't make mockery of medical education: SC

NEW DELHI: Sending a stern message that quality of medical education must be maintained in state-run colleges, the Supreme Court on Monday directed the states of Bihar, UP and Jharkhand to remove deficiencies in their colleges and threatened to direct their closure from the next academic session.
Eight medical colleges came under the scanner of Medical Council of India last year for not fulfilling the criteria and it barred them from admitting students for deficiencies in infrastructure.The apex court had, in an interim relief, allowed the colleges to function and and run MBBS course for 2018-19 after these state governments gave assurances that the deficiencies would be soon rectified.
Appearing before a bench of Justices S A Bobde and Deepak Gupta, MCI contended that one of the colleges in Uttar Pradesh did not allow its team to visit the campus to find out whether deficiencies had been removed.
"You cannot make mockery of medical education. The quality of medical and legal education cannot be compromised. You are there for making money but we are concerned about education. This cannot be allowed to go on and we won't allow admission in those colleges next year. We know how to take the decision and we have done it earlier. You will have to close the college," the bench said.
The state governments, however, assured the court that all necessary steps will be taken to remove the deficiencies and the Uttar Pradesh government said action had been taken against the official who had prevented the MCI team from visiting the campus of a medical college. The states assured to file a comprehensive report on compliance of the apex court's order.
Four of these government medical colleges are from Uttar Pradesh-Government Allopathic Medical College at Banda, Government Medical College at Saharanpur, Government Medical College and Super Speciality Hospital at Azamgarh and Rajkiya Medical College at Jalaun district.
The three colleges from Bihar which have come under the scanner are: Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College (Gaya), Vardhman Institute of Medical Sciences (Nalanda) and Government Medical College at Bettiah. The college from Jharkhand is Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College at Jamshedpur.