HC tells debarred medical college to refund fees

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Saturday found fault with private medical college Fatima Institute of Medical Sciences in YSR Kadapa district for admitting students to MBBS first year in 2015-16 without permission from the Medical Council of India (MCI) and directed the management to immediately refund the entire fee collected from the students.
"Since this would mean that their admissions are cancelled, the students can work out their remedies against the college for causing loss to them," the bench of acting Chief Justice Dilip B Bhosale and Justice P Naveen Rao said while dismissing a petition filed by the college run by the Mohammadiya Educational Society at Ramarajupalli of Pulivendula area in Kadapa.
The MCI earlier during inspections found that the medical college had inadequate infrastructure. Accordingly, it refused to renew recognition to the college. The college, however, approached the high court last year and obtained an interim order in its favour and went ahead with enrolling students. The single judge who gave the interim relief to the college, however, made it clear that the actions of the college would be subject to final hearing and that all the students should be notified about the consequences in advance.
Aggrieved by this, the MCI filed an appeal before the division bench headed by CJ. It was also brought to the notice of the bench by MCI counsel S Niranjan Reddy that the college misled the courts by simultaneously filing two petitions before the high courts of Hydeabad and Delhi.