The division bench comprising Justice Kh Nobin and Justice MV Muralidaran of the High Court of Manipur in an order last Wednesday directed the state to take appropriate and immediate steps as required by MCI (now NMC) guidelines, in order to ensure that the number of seats for admission to MBBS course at JNIMS, Imphal is increased to 150 seats from the academic session 2021-22.
“It is open to the public to get in touch with the state government in this regard so that the needful is done by the state government without fail,” the court stated.
The public interest litigation filed by one Laiphrakpam Manihar in the interest of MBBS students has been disposed of with the direction. On Manihar’s PIL, he stated that there has been a scarcity of medical professionals in the state of Manipur wherein the ratio between the medical practitioners and the population of the state is very low as compared to that of other states in the country.
On December 8, 2020, the Imphal Free Press had published a report on Medical aspirants waiting for admission as MBBS seats in Manipur’s medical college are yet to be increased. In connection with the news, the PIL was filed by Manihar before the High Court. Responding to thePIL, the High Court gave the directions.
The PIL stated that there are at present, 100 seats at JNIMS, of which 15 seats are kept aside/earmarked for all India. In addition, there are 30 seats at RIMS as quota for the state of Manipur, of which 11 seats are meant for the EWS candidate, it stated. Due to these figures, the increase in the number of seats for admission to MBBS courses in the state has been the demand of the people which remain unfulfilled till date, it added.
The state government’s affidavit submitted to the High Court has stated that the secretariat of health department wrote a letter on November 26, 2020 to the secretary of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, government of India by submitting the essential certificate for increasing the seats from 100 to 150 from the academic session 2021-22.
Thereafter, the Secretariat of Health department on December 7, 2020 requested the director of JNIMS as well as the director of RIMS to furnish necessary comments.
Accordingly, JNIMS submitted the report of increasing seats from the academic session 2021-22.
Afterwards, the Directorate of Medical and Health Services, Manipur furnished information that the increase in the intake capacity of medical students in medical college is possible only after the permission is granted by the National Medical Commission (NMC).
The necessary steps have been taken up by the state government but since the minimum requirement as prescribed by the NMC are yet to be fulfilled; the increase of seats from the academic session 2020-21 could not be made.
The court judgment also noted that the question of whether to increase or not to increase the number of seats for admission to MBBS course of Medical College in the state is a matter of policy decision, and it is the domain of the state government to take a policy decision, the implementation of which will depend upon the approval of the NMC.
And in fact, the increase of the student’s intake in a Medical College is not an easy task and it depends upon the fulfilment of various conditions like adequate infrastructure, sufficient manpower of both teaching and non-teaching, financial capacity etc. as prescribed in the guidelines of the NMC.
