SC notice to AP Govt, pvt medical colleges

The Supreme Court has asked the Andhra Pradesh Government and the NTR Health University to respond to a plea, which has alleged that several meritorious candidates have been denied admissions on the management quota seats in various private colleges of the state.

Issuing notices last Friday, also to the private colleges, on petitions filed by a group of students, a bench of justices H L Dattu and C K Prasad said admissions made till date for academic year 2012 will be subject to the final outcome of the students' pleas, pending before it. Counsel Allanki Ramesh also filed a caveat on behalf of 16 private medical colleges pleading that they be heard before any order is passed by the court in the matter. Any admissions made by the respondent institutions in MBBS/BDS or any other course is subject to the result of the present special leave petitions. Respondent colleges shall intimate the pendency of the present SLPs as well as the interim orders passed by us to all the students who have taken admission in the 'C' category (management quota). We also make it clear that pendency of the special leave petitions here will not come in the way of the high court taking a decision on the merits of the writ petition, the bench said in its order.

The Andhra Pradesh private medical colleges have three category of seats - A, B and C. A and B category seats are filled by the colleges on the basis of a common entrance test conducted by the state's NTR University, for which the fee is comparatively low. Category C seats are filled by the management by way of newspaper notifications inviting students who have secured a minimum of 60 percent marks in the qualifying plus 2 examination, as held by the apex court in the P A Inamdar case but with a higher fee structure of approximately around Rs 5.5 lakh per annum.

-PTI