File photograph of the Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: In the wake of an ongoing investigation into a judicial nexus in illegal medical college admissions, the Supreme Court directed a Lucknow-based college on Thursday to pay Rs 10 lakh each to 150 students as compensation and sternly admonished a bench of the Allahabad high court for permitting the admissions.

The court asked the college to refund the admission fee paid by the students and slapped a fine of Rs 25 lakh to be paid to the SC registry. It also barred the college from admitting students for the next academic year of 2018-19.

Not mincing words while pulling up the division bench of the Allahabad HC for allowing the institute to admit students in violation of its order, a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud said it was a case of “judicial indiscipline and impropriety”.

Senior advocate Vikas Singh and lawyer Gaurav Sharma, appearing for the Medical Council of India (MCI), told the bench that the HC allowed admissions even though the college didn’t have formal permission from the Centre and failed to consider that the college suffered from deficiencies in infrastructure, clinical material and faculty. Moreover, the HC ignored the earlier SC order restraining any interim order in this regard.

The apex court said the HC bench had virtually overruled the SC order, transgressing all rules and regulations. “It is most unfortunate, which may cause [an] institutional problem,” the bench said and hinted that it may address the issue on the administrative side.

Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for the college, said the institution should not be punished for the HC’s wrong verdict but the bench remained firm.

A bench of the Allahabad HC was recently in the news after the CBI arrested a retired judge of the Orissa HC, I M Quddusi, for allegedly conspiring to facilitate a favourable order for a college run by Prasad Education Trust — also a Lucknow-based institution. Quddusi had earlier served in the Allahabad HC.

The SC’s order assumes significance in view of allegations of a middlemen-judges nexus for getting favourable judgments in cases of medical admissions. The CBI arrested Quddusi and five others for allegedly conspiring to “settle” an MCI order debarring a private medical college from MBBS admissions. The case exposed the rot and corruption in medical education.

Quddusi has been accused by CBI of offering “legal guidance” to the promoters of the private medical college on how to get around the admission ban and even promising suitable orders from the apex court.

Investigating agencies have also lodged an FIR against two IAS officers serving in Puducherry — former health secretary B R Babu and Narendra Kumar, who headed the committee on admissions to medical colleges — for allegedly denying admissions to deserving students and selling seats to others at “exorbitant” rates.

Coming down heavily on GCRG Memorial Trust, which runs the college in Lucknow, the bench said it had illegally admitted students and jeopardised their careers. Quashing their admission, the bench said the college must compensate them for playing with their careers and “polluting young minds” by admitting them in violation of the law.

In the current case, the court had earlier passed an order restraining the HC from issuing any interim order pertaining to the academic year 2017-18. The HC, however, went ahead and allowed the college to admit students for the current session, drawing the SC’s ire.

“We really fail to fathom the manner in which the high court has misconstrued our order and passed the final order for 2017-18. We are issuing notice only to test the propriety of the order and also if the institution is eligible to get the renewal of letter of permission for 2018-19,” the bench had said while entertaining an appeal filed by MCI.

