CHENNAI: The speed with which the Madras high court has dismissed charges against medical colleges accused of seeking capitation fees or inflating faculty numbers has raised eyebrows in judicial circles as well as focused the spotlight on the mess in the professional education sector.Between July 16 and August 7 this year, four medical colleges facing CBI cases have managed to wriggle out of criminal proceedings, that too after detailed chargesheets were filed, which signifies that the cases were on the threshold of trial.Medical Council of India inspection teams had unearthed a fraud which revealed that at least three private medical colleges in Tamil Nadu had paraded fake faculty during inspections, in order to receive or renew their recognition. However, neither MCI nor the Union ministry of health and family welfare initiated criminal proceedings by lodging a complaint.It was left to CBI to slap cases of cheating and conspiracy against Melmaruvathur Adhi Parashakthi Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute and Sri Lakshmi Narayana Institute of Medical Sciences. However, a trial court discharged the colleges and later the high court upheld the order saying “fake submissions” and “errant doctors” were “an offence” under the Medical Council of India Act, but not a crime.Lawyers outside Madras high court.In the fourth case involving Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute in Chennai, evidence was based on a joint sting operation by Times Now and The Times of India. Visual and audio recordings of university officials demanding capitation fee ranging from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 35 lakh, was handed over to CBI at the agency’s request.However, the CBI dragged its feet by invoking only Prevention of Corruption Act provisions against college administrators and no other penal law such as IPC for seeking capitation fees. The court threw out the case saying a dean of a private university is not a public servant discharging public duty, and hence the PC Act could not be invoked against him.“The central agency failed to weave a strong case around the material it had in its possession,” a veteran prosecutor told TOI. “The CBI has no explanation for removing MCI strongman and its chairman/president Dr Ketan Desai from the chargesheet, even though the FIR contained his name. Also, when the case was transferred from the files of the special court for CBI cases to the additional chief metropolitan magistrate court, that too without any formal application from anyone or orders from courts, the CBI failed to oppose or challenge the transfer,” he said.CBI director Ranjit Sinha.Incidentally, Desai despite being MCI president was on the board of management of Sri Ramachandra when the scandal broke in 2009, which indicated a serious conflict of interest. Subsequently, he lost his post after he was arrested for allegedly taking Rs 2 crore as bribe from a medical college in Punjab. The case continues but Desai has made a comeback as a member of the Gujarat Medical Council.In the present case, CBI has failed to name not only Desai but also the ‘fake faculty’ who are doctors who lend their names to colleges to window-dress their roll-call list for a consideration, said a veteran prosecutor.CBI, however, did move in the right direction when it approached the high court opposing discharge of administrators of two medical colleges. But the high court took a sweeping view of the matter saying “there is no room for any external agency to investigate” a case of corruption or illegality in medical colleges since the subject falls entirely under the purview of the MCI.A women undergoing CT scan.Letting the institutions off the hook, Justice Aruna Jagadeesan said since the Medical Council Act was a self-contained law having provisions to deal with misconduct by doctors and medical institutions, it was improper for the CBI to slap cases against the violators.The judge also said the CBI had sought to selectively deal with the problem of illegalities in medical colleges by picking on managements and doctors and not proceeding against the MCI or its chairman. The judgment suggests that the MCI should be left alone to clean up the mess in medical education without any intervention by other agencies. How a regulator can be expected to put itself under scrutiny, especially when its chairman himself is under a cloud, remained unanswered.“The speed with which courts acted to ensure that the accused did not face trial baffles me,” a former judge said, adding, “High courts are usually extremely wary of quashing FIRs and chargesheets, more so if they are probed by CBI. Power to quash as vested with high courts under Section 482 of CrPC should be used only if it is clear that continuing the criminal proceedings would cause ‘gross injustice’ to people concerned.”Concurring with him, the ex-prosecutor said it was too early for the trial court as well as the high court to discuss “threadbare” such legal issues as “essence of cheating and criminal conspiracy”, which are the main charges against these institutions. The CBI prosecutor’s cry against courts’ interference in the cases even before the start of the trial, obviously, fell on deaf ears.