New Delhi, July 29: The Delhi High Court dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by three doctors who sought the quashing of regulation 9(3) of the postgraduate Medical Education (Amendment) Regulations 2018 to the extent that it provides for minimum marks of 50th percentile as a mandatory requirement for the admission to postgraduate courses.
While addressing the petition, the bench of Justice led by Satish Chandra and Justice Subramoniam Prasad dismissed the petition stating that, "the question of quashing the statutory provision in the peculiar circumstances of the case does not arise merely because a large number of seats are lying vacant."
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The court also stated that the lowering of the standards of medical education has the potential of wreaking havoc in society at large-due to the risk that the practice of medicine entails-- as it involves in its ambit the matter of life and death and therefore it would be unconscionable for this court to interfere in the standards duly and diligently set by the governing authority.
The Court said in a judgement that, "This court therefore cannot issue a mandamus directing the respondents to fill up the seats, especially when the persons concerned have not obtained the minimum percentile as this court is dealing with admissions to postgraduate courses in various medical colleges and there can't be any compromise on the issue of quality of doctors/ specialists as it involves the risk of human lives. Resultantly, no case for interference is made out in the matter."
The main thrust of the arguments of the petitioners is that on account of the percentile system, as the candidates have not been securing the 50th percentile, a large number of seats are not being filled and it is a national loss as it obstructs the doctors from obtaining postgraduate qualifications.
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The petitioners further stated that on account of the faulty system which has been adopted by the respondents, the last minute applications are being filed to fill the unfilled seats and, said that this process leads to unscrupulous methods being adopted by colleges in granting admission wherever any such relaxation for reducing the percentile exists.
-PTC News