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Synopsis

The Supreme Court has said that the National Medical Commission (NMC) is an organ of the State and is required to act fairly and reasonably. Court imposed a penalty of Rs 10 lakh on the regulatory body for unfairly revoking approval for an increase in MBBS seats, thereby harassing an institution.

A bench of Justices B R Gavai and K V Vishwanathan dismissed a petition filed by the NMC as an "abuse of the process of law", saying, "Prima facie, we find that the attitude of the NMC is not of a model litigant".

The NMC was aggrieved with the Kerala High Court's division bench order of August 13, 2024 by which it was directed to grant permission to K M C T Medical College upon filing of an undertaking.

Going through the material placed on record, the bench noted that by a letter of February 27, 2023 issued by the Medical Assessment & Rating Board (MARB), the respondent Medical College had initially been granted approval for increase of seats from 150 to 250 for the academic year 2023-24.

However, by a subsequent letter of April 05, 2023 issued by the MARB, it was withdrawn.

The court observed that from the letter of disapproval of June 29, 2024, the MARB had granted disapproval to the respondent-Medical College, giving two reasons that COA (consent of affiliation) was not submitted and the matter was sub judice in the court.

"We find that merely because the matter is sub judice in Court could not have been the ground of disapproval of the proposal. If the NMC had any doubts, it could have clearly approached the Court concerned and sought clarification," the bench said.

Perusing the impugned order, the court noted that a consent of affiliation (COA) had admittedly been granted in favour of the respondent-Medical College on August 12, 2024.

Senior advocate Gaurav Sharma appearing for the NMC submitted that the grant of permission had to be considered on an annual basis. 

He submitted that the earlier rejection pertained to the academic year 2023-2024, while the current issue revolved around the academic year 2024-2025. Since no inspection had been conducted for the 2024-2025 academic year, he asserted that the high court's order, now under challenge, was not justified.

Taking an exception to the attitude of the NMC, the bench said, "Making a party run from Court to Court to seek permission, specifically when the institute concerned is not a new institute and has been running for the last 18 years, in our view, is only an attempt to harass the institution. Particularly, when the approval granted earlier for the academic year 2023-2024 was withdrawn, no deficiency, except non-grant of COA, was pointed out."

Court thus dismissed the plea with Rs 10 lakh cost to be deposited within four weeks equally divided with the Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association to be used for the purpose of the library and the Supreme Court Bar Association Advocates Welfare Fund.

Case Title: The National Medical Commission & Anr Vs The Principal K M C T Medical College & Ors