Bhubaneswar: The hopes and aspirations of more than 600 students who got into medical colleges this year will crash as the National Medical Commission (NMA) has invalidated their MBBS admission for violation of its guidelines. What is more, 2,000 MBBS seats across the country will go waste due to mismanagement of the counselling process in several states.
Admissions to more than 1,500 MBBS seats were time-barred and remained vacant even after the September 30 deadline set by the Supreme Court. The admissions of another 600 students are in jeopardy as their admissions were invalidated by the National Medical Commission (MC). These students were admitted by colleges in violation of rules that only a central or state agency can conduct counselling, Times of India reported adding that all these seats will remain vacant for the course period unless the SC extends the deadline.
On Thursday, Undergraduate Medical Education Board Director Shambhu Sharan Kumar issued a two-page notification saying students admitted by central and state authorities after the cutoff date of September 30 should be discharged immediately.
The notification pointed out that the Supreme Court approved the time schedule a consulting all states, UTs, the central government and other stakeholders in 2016. It said the apex court had reiterated in 2019 that seats lying vacant would not be a “justifiable reason” to extend the cutoff date or grant admissions beyond that. This year, MC cautioned the stakeholders about the cutoff date on July 27.
Kumar informed that states such as Maharashtra, Bihar and Bengal conducted online and offline MBBS counselling beyond the cutoff date.
