Times of India: Bangalore:
Thursday, March 13, 2014.
The Karnataka
high court on Wednesday imposed a fine of Rs 15,000 each upon Rajiv Gandhi
University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) and MR Medical College, Gulbarga for not
providing photocopies of the answer sheets of a postgraduate medical student
despite him filing the requisite application in time.
Justice Anand
Byrareddy directed the institutions to pay the fine in two weeks to the
student, K Vijayasena Reddy.
Reddy had
appeared for PG Radiology final exam in May 2013. After failing in the exam, he
filed an application for re-totalling and seeking photocopies of answer sheets.
The
re-totalling deemed him failed for scoring below 40 marks. But the university
did not provide photocopies of answer scripts. He then filed an application
under RTI seeking information on his answer sheets. However, the university
issued an endorsement saying it had already sent them to the college. When
approached, the college denied having received the same. However, RGUHS
informed the court that since six months are over, the answer sheets had been
destroyed.
Pay more
attention to MCI: HC to Centre
Observing
that the constitution and composition of Medical Council of India (MCI) cannot
be regulated on ad-hoc basis through promulgation of ordinances, the Karnataka
high court on Wednesday asked the Union government to pay more attention to its
affairs to ensure certainty in the premier institution that governs medical
education in the country.
"MCI has
an important role to play not only as a professional body. It has a duty and
responsibility in maintaining standards in medical education in the country.
The constitution and composition of MCI cannot be regulated on ad-hoc basis
through promulgation of ordinances. It is high time the Union government
bestows its attention at the MCI so that there is certainty with regards to its
constitutions and composition," a division bench comprising Chief Justice
D H Waghela and Justice B V Nagarathna said. The bench made the observation
while allowing a writ appeal filed by Dr B D Manjunath and Dr H D Ranganath,
faculty members in medical colleges affiliated to Rajiv Gandhi University of
Health Sciences (RGUHS).
College
faculty eligible:
The division
bench quashed an earlier ruling by a single bench and held that faculty of
medical colleges affiliated to RGUHS are entitled to contest the election for
electing representatives to the MCI.
The bench
also directed the university to conduct elections for the four MCI posts from
RGUHS on or before May 15, 2014 by allowing all the medical faculty members in
affiliated colleges to enter the fray.
The bench
noted that neighbouring states like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala have
already allowed members of medical faculty of the affiliated medical colleges
to contest to the posts based on the Indian Medical Council (Amendment)
Ordinance, 2013.
The court
said that section 3(1) of the ordinance was not merely to increase the number
of representatives but more aptly intended to change the very nature of
membership to represent a health university in the MCI.
This order of
the division bench invalidates the election of KS Sriprakash, VC of RGUHS; AM
Jagdeesh, medical superintendent of Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology; Shivanand
S Bhimalli and R Nisarga to MCI. All four are RGUHS faculty.
On August 28,
2013, a single bench had held that members of the faculty of medical colleges
affiliated to RGUHS are not entitled to contest the election and only members
of the Senate of RGUHS can.
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