Admission of 268 medicos scrapped

THE STUDENTS NOT ONLY BREACHED THE COMPUTERS BUT ALSO GOT MERITORIOUS CANDIDATES TO HELP THEM ANSWER QUESTIONS, COURT SAID

NEW DELHI: Medical students —who got admission into colleges across Madhya Pradesh between 2008 and 2012 — cannot practise anymore after the Supreme Court cancelled their admissions on Monday in connection with the multi-crore Vyapam scandal.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar said the case presented before it by the students warranted no interference into an earlier order by the top court under its special powers, holding consequences of fraud cannot be overlooked.

The students, bench said, not only breached the computer system to effectuate their plans but also procured meritorious candidates to assist them in answering questions.

“It is not in dispute, that none of the appellants would have been admitted to the MBBS course, as their merit position in the Pre-Medical Test, was not as a result of their own efforts, but was based on extraneous assistance,” the bench held, responding to a reference made to it after a two-judge bench gave a split verdict in May 2016 on the future of students.

A bench of justice J Chelameswar and Justice AM Sapre had cancelled the admissions, but differed on punishment.

Justice Chelameswar held it would not be prudent to let the students waste the knowledge they had acquired. Saying the students were not criminals, he had asked them to serve with the army or in rural areas for five years without getting paid. Justice Sapre, however, barred the students.

Vyapam’s counsel Rajul SRivastava told HT that the board had cancelled 634 admissions. “The order affects 268 because only they took the admission,” he said.

Students urged the court for leniency, contending they studied hard.

“Even in situations where a juvenile indulges in crime, he has to face trial, and is subjected to the postulated statutory consequences. Law has consequences. And the consequences of law brook no exception,” the SC held.

Vyapam cancelled the admissions after revelations that its officials had let candidates morph photographs and send impersonators to write tests.

Considered one of India’s biggest corruption scandals, the Vyapam scam shot to nationwide notoriety in 2015 after a string of mysterious deaths of witnesses and suspects.

Meanwhile, on of the affected students said, “We were trapped in the web of irregularities ... A middleman took guarantee of admission in a medical college in exchange of money. I got ready without thinking of the consequences.”