Kerala: HC lashes out at Mohammed Panel

KOCHI: Coming down heavily on the admission supervisory committee, the Kerala High Court observed on Wednesday that the committee chose to accept the dictates of the Kerala Private Medical College Management Association.“At every stage of the admission process, the association (KPMCMA) should have obtained the approval of the committee including the notification, inviting applications, preparation of prospectus, question papers and the list of applicants, conduct of the written test, publication of ranklist and counselling. According to previous judgments, failure to comply with these directives would render the selection invalid. The directives in the judgment of the Fathima Haneena case and Noorbina Bhanu case have become final and if they are not complied with, the defaulters will have to face the consequences, the court observed. The committee submitted that it has not granted any approval except for the prospectus. The word ‘approval’ in the Fathima Haneena case now seemed to be misinterpreted by the association for its advantage, the court observed.At the same time, the association said that in a time-bound exercise, taking approval at each and every stage of the admission process was not at all practical.“This stand of the association is almost equal to contempt of court. It is clear from the association’s submissions that it is confessing that it had not obtained prior approval of the Committee. The association had accepted its responsibility to obtain prior approval of the committee. The absence of prior approval will invalidate the selection process,” the court said, adding that the committee had the statutory duty to ensure that the entrance exam is conducted by none other than the CEE as authorised by it.“The proceedings of the committee do not show that it was verified or found to be satisfying the condition set by the committee. To crown all these lapses, the committee had the misfortune to confess before this court of having granted conditional approval to the prospectus prepared by the KPMCMA” the court said.