A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Madras high court to direct the private dental colleges to ensure and conduct admission of students to the postgraduation courses strictly as per the laws and regulations based on the merit-based rank list published by the Director of Medical Education (DME) and consequently direct the state government to monitor and supervise the admission process to ensure proper transparent and merit-based admission.
A division bench, comprising justices K.K. Sasidharan and R. Karuppiah, before whom the PIL filed by Indian Dental Association by its state legal cell co-convener, Dr (ex-Major) V. Murali came up for hearing, ordered notice to the state government, Dr M.G.R. Medical University, DME, Dental Council of India (DCI) and 14 private dental colleges in the state and posted to June 3 further hearing of the case.
According to the petitioner, as per the regulations governing admission process for the present academic year, as published by DCI, in non-governmental institutions 50 per cent of the total seats should be filled by the competent authority and the remaining 50 per cent by the management on the basis of merit. The admission in respect of MDS courses in government quota was vide a common entrance test, which was widely publicised and conducted transparently by DME at the behest of the TN government in consonance with the DCI notification.
In the present academic year, over 1,000 students appeared for the examination and a rank list was published and admissions were expected to be conducted based on the list. But several colleges have not been following due and transparent process to admit students, for reasons best known to them.
