Univ official caught asking capitation fee let off hook
A.Subramani@timesgroup.com
Chennai:
HC Says He's Not A Public Servant
Five years after a sting operation by Times Now and The Times of India exposed a well-oiled capitation fee racket in MBBS admissions in the state, the Madras high court has quashed a chargesheet filed by CBI in the sensational case.
Setting aside the chargesheet against Dr A Subramanian, then deputy registrar (academics) of Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute, Justice Aruna Jagadeesan recently said he could not be considered a public servant and hence provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act could not be invoked against him. “He is not a public servant and does not come under the purview of Section 2(c) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988,” she said.
The June 2009 sting operation caught officials of two institutions — Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research and Institute and Shree Balaji Medical College and Hospital — demanding huge sums as capitation fee for
MBBS and BDS courses.
Balaji College’s administrative officer Johnson was caught on camera directing a student to meet “an agent” at Shree Lakshmi Ammal Educational Trust in T Nagar for “negotiations” over the capitation fee of ` `20 lakh. Subramanian was caught telling a student that capitation fee was ` `40 lakh. He quickly clarified that
it did not include tuition fees of ` `3.25 lakh per annum.
The expose rocked the state, with the government issuing show-cause notices to the institutions, and the CBI taking over the probe. During inquiry, CBI interrogated 30 people and perused 25 documents. Subramanian was arrested on January 18, 2011, and remanded in judicial custody.
On March 29, 2011, the CBI filed a chargesheet in the Sri Ramachandra College case in a special court, charging Subramanian with offences punishable under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The deemed university was not named due to lack of material evidence against it. After the special court for CBI cases rejected Subramanian's petition to discharge him from the case on January 23, 2013, he filed a revision petition in the high court. His counsel A Ramesh submitted that the deputy registrar was not a public servant as defined under Section 2(c) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. He is not a public officer required to perform any public duty , he argued.
N Chandrasekaran, CBI's senior special public prosecutor, said Subramanian was an employee of a deemed-to-be university and hence he was indeed a public servant who had demanded illegal gratification. Questioning the very maintainability of the petition, the prosecutor said the high court could not entertain a revision petition against an order framing charges, which is an interlocutory order.
Rejecting the objections, Justice Jagadeesan said that in order to attract provisions of the PC Act, the university where Subramanian worked “should have received any grant or aid from the Centre or state. In the case on hand, Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute does not receive or has not received any aid from either the central or state bodies. The institution is run by a trust and it is an autonomous body . Therefore, Subramanian cannot be a public servant as defined under the Act“. Also, as deputy registrar (academics), he was not concerned with the admission process in the college, she concluded, relying on the statements of witnesses.
Pointing out that as per the PC Act, the term public duty meant a duty in the discharge of which the state, the public or the community at large has an interest, Justice Jagadeesan said Subramanian was only a deputy registrar and in the very nature of the position of his office, no public duty was imposed on him. “He is not authorised or required to do any public duty . He is not concerned with the admission process in the college,“ she said.
STATE SET TO LOSE 750 MBBS SEATS - 5 TN med colleges barred from admitting students
Chennai:
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
In what could be a setback for medical aspi rants in the state, Tamil Na du is set to lose 750 MBBS seats in the 2014-15 academic year, the highest in the coun try. Five private medical col leges in the state have been barred from admitting students by the Medical Council of India (MCI) after they failed to meet the required standards in infrastructure, faculty and research.
The colleges did not meet the MCI-prescribed mini mum standard requirements, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan said in a writ ten reply to Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. Across the country, 3,820 MBBS seats in 45 colleges have been barred this year. The five colleges are Madha Medical College at Thandalam near Chennai, Tagore Medical College at Vandalur near Chennai, SRM in Trichy, Annapurna Medical College in Salem and Muthukumaran Medi cal College at Kundrathur near Chennai.
“These colleges have been barred from admitting stu dents for MBBS course in this academic year,“ an offi cial of the directorate of medical education con firmed to TOI. Last academic year too, five private medical colleges in the state were barred from admitting stu dents. Around 700 seats were cancelled.
“It is a loss for aspiring medical students in the state.
The five colleges should have been given a chance to im prove their infrastructure to the levels of MCI standards.
Earlier, the colleges used to be given time before the final inspection by inspection by an MCI team.
This year, it was not done,“ said former director of pub lic health and preventive medicine Dr S Elango.
Uttar Pradesh is set to lose 565 MBBS seats. Though more than 3,000 seats have been denied to prospective students across the country, the minister said the MCI recommended establish ment of 16 new medical col leges with an intake capacity of 2,050 seats and also recom mended increase of 600 MBBS seats in 10 existing medical colleges this aca demic year.
139 Complaints Filed With All India Council For Technical Education Against Colleges In State
Tamil Nadu stands second in the country on a list for complaints registered against colleges demanding capitation fee for admission. A total of 139 complaints have been filed with All India Council for Technical Education against colleges in Tamil Nadu.
Uttar Pradesh topped the list with 180 complaints. In the list that was published as an annexure to an answer to a question raised in the current parliamentary session, four states — Uttar Pradesh, Tamil
Nadu, Maharashtra and Haryana -have more than 100 complaints registered against colleges. Delhi has 108 complaints against its colleges. Demanding capitation fee for a seat in a professional or a technical institution is illegal. Though the tuition fees for colleges, government, government-aided and self-fi nancing colleges is fixed by the state governments, colleges still flout norms by charging capitation fees.
Medical colleges in Tamil Nadu were found demanding as much as `1 crore for a seat, a PIL filed in the Madras high court said last week. The PIL said that both Tamil Nadu and Puducherry accounted for around 50 medical colleges with most being self-financing colleges. The University Grants Commission has recorded five complaints of capitation fee being collected by TN colleges between 2010 and 2013.
Despite availability of seats, students and parents rush to colleges for admissions even before the Class 12 results are out, academicians said. “The overall lack of quality in higher education forces students to flock to the few top colleges, both government and private. During engineering counselling, for instance, apart from Anna University’s branches in Chennai and about five government and governmentaided colleges, students preferred self-financing colleges,” J P Gandhi, an educational consultant, said.
“When the demand for a self-financing institution is
high in counselling, students and parents are afraid they will not get a seat on merit and go ahead and pay for a management seat,” Gandhi said.
“This gives many self-financing institutions the upper hand to demand higher capitation fees,” he said. In the first three days of engineering counselling, of the six colleges that were almost full in Coimbatore, at least three were self-financing.
Experts said the state and central government should focus on improving the quality of existing government colleges so that more students choose these institutes.
Decades Have Passed Since Act Banning Donations Was Notified But States Yet To Frame Rules
After pending for a couple of years in Parliament, the Prohibition of Unfair Practices in Tech nical and Medical Educational Institutions and Universities Bill has slipped into oblivion. But, this does not mean that no action can be taken against institutions and officials that demand capitation fee, as most states, including Tamil Nadu, have a Prohibition of Collection of Capitation Fee Act.
However, across the country convictions under this Act are rare, if at all. Academics said it is not the lack of laws that allows collection of capitation fee to continue, but the lack of will. In most states, the relevant Act is “useless,“ say academics and activists campaigning against corruption in education. Though decades have passed since the Act was brought in, states have failed to frame the rules.
“Neither the government nor educational institutions is interested in putting a stop to this. Everybody is collecting capitation fee, and nobody has any qualms about this,“ said M Anandakrishnan, chairman of the board of governors of IIT-Kanpur and who has been on the committee that drafted the Prevention of Malpractices in Education Bill. The proposed law states that every institution should mention the facilities offered and the fees collected. If they fail to do this the officials will have to spend three years in jail and will be fined crores. “A new law should be enacted to curb this trend. The government should really show that it has the political will to do this,“ Anandakrishnan said.
Academics also said that even if these Acts are not helpful, aca demic bodies like University Grants Commission, AICTE and MCI can conduct inquiries and take appropriate action. But this is rarely done and agencies pass the buck, said academics.
“Prevention of commercialisa tion of education is integral to the parent Act of AICTE, MCI, UGC and other statutory bodies. They should have drawn power from their statutory status and enforced compliance,“ said S Vaidhyasubramaniam of SASTRA University . Jayant B Jain, president of Forum for Fairness in Education, said, “The only way to stop this practice is to put three or four erring principals behind bars. Then, everybody will hesitate to demand capitation fee.“
It is that time of the year when the coffers at private medical colleges are ringing nonstop. For an aspiring doctor, getting an MBBS degree is sure to burn a hole in the MBBS degree is sure to burn a hole in the pocket as the capitation fee charged along with the tuition fee by private medical colleges and universities has sky-rocketed. The capitation fee and tuition fee together touches between Rs 80 lakh and Rs 1 crore, making the medical degree an unaffordable dream for many .
Experts say that in the last five years, tuition fee has risen 25% in most private medical colleges and so has the capitation fee. The rise is steeper in deemed universities. However, government medical colleges charge only Rs 11,500 a year as tuition fee and students are paid a stipend during their last year of house surgeoncy .
Supriya, a student who has dreams of being a doctor, said, “The fee in private colleges is five times higher than government medical colleges. The tuition fee charge by self-financing colleges does not include the hostel fee and lab, library and seminar expenses which pushes the amount up by a few lakhs.“
With 750 seats being removed from five private medical colleges in Tamil Nadu, the scramble for a medical seat is bound to get tougher and more expensive. Despite various committees being formed every year to regulate tuition fees at private medical colleges, the amount continues to spiral as the panels can regulate only the tuition fees and do nothing about the `miscellaneous' amounts. “Though we had saved for her education since she was a girl, Rs 1 crore is an exorbitant amount and we have to rely on a bank loan,“ said Supriya's mother Anusha.
Dr G R Ravindranath, general secretary of Doctors' Association for Social Equality , said the government needs to make the regulations stringent and initiate action against private medical colleges that flout norms. “Capitation fee is a burden on any family and students will fleece patients when they become doctors,“ he said. The government had warned that any private college that collects a capitation fee would be subjected to a penalty of Rs 50 lakh but nothing has been done so far. “Instead of imposing a fine, the government should take over private colleges that charge capitation fees,“ he said.
There are no complaints that institutions in Tamil Nadu are collecting capitation fee, declared higher education minister P Palaniappan in the assembly on Thursday.
The statement comes in the wake of reports about All India Council for Technical Education and University Grants Commission continuing to receive complaints on collection of capitation fee.
Palaniappan was responding to a query from DMDK legislator R Mohanraj who, citing the TOI report on the capitation fee menace in Tamil Nadu colleges, sought an explanation as to why the state could not curb the practice.
Participating in the debate on a day Palaniappan presented the demands for his ministry, Mohanraj said self-financing colleges in the state were collecting hefty donations for man agement quota seats.
“The colleges are collecting capitation fee based on the cutoff score of students. A student with a cutoff of 125 pays one amount and a student with a higher cutoff score pays a lower amount,“ Mohanraj said.
Responding to this, Palaniappan said, “There are no such complaints against institutions in the state.“
There were some complaints against deemed universities, but they were not under state control. Palaniappan said the fee that engineering colleges in the state can collect is not fixed by the state, but by a fee determination committee appointed by the high court. “If the colleges are collecting more than what is prescribed by the committee, an inquiry will be conducted and action will be taken. But, so far there have been no such complaints,“ he said.
According an answer to a question raised in Parliament, 139 complaints of capitation fee collection have been filed against selffinancing technical institutions in Tamil Nadu with the AICTE between January 2012 and March 2014. It is the second highest in the country , with Uttar Pradesh taking the top spot with 180 complaints. Besides, the UGC recorded five complaints against TN colleges between 2010 and 2013 and the directorate of technical education (DOTE) in Tamil Nadu received 130 complaints between June 2013 and March 2014.
When Mohanraj insisted that there were instances of institutions collecting capitation fee, Palaniappan said that these were deemed universities. “They are not under state control. Any action can only be taken through the ministry of human resource development,“ he said.
When Mohanraj refused to back down, Palaniappan said the opposition cannot make these allegations without mentioning the college that collected the capitation fee or the student who paid it.
“Only if you mention names, we can take action against the institutions. Without mentioning names you are making it look like the state is making these mistakes,“ Palaniappan said.
Complaints on collection of capitation fee continue to reach the directorate of technical education (DOTE), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the University Grants Commission (UGC) but little is done to ensure that colleges do not fleece parents.
A total of 1,464 complaints were registered with AICTE between January 2012 and March 2014 and 24 with the UGC from across the country . The directorate of technical education in Tamil Nadu recorded 130 complaints between June 2013 and March 2014. “The reports about the complaints have been submitted to the DOTE commissioner and the secretary for higher education in the state,“ a senior official of the fee committee said.
AICTE chairman S S Mantha said, “We received 956 complaints about educational institutions online. None of them relates to collection of capitation fee. Of the 425 complaints received offline, two are about capitation fee.“ A showcause notice has been sent to the institutions involved and further action will be taken,“ he said.
A senior official in the fee committee who did not want to be named said, “Complaints are received all through the year but we sort out most of them over the phone.“ Only 130 complaints have been recorded by the committee. “The institutions are asked to refund the money to the student and are given a verbal warning,“ the official said.
Anna University in Chennai, the coordinating body for engineering counselling in Tamil Nadu, does not have much say on the issue. A senior administrative official said the issue did not come under the university’s purview and they could not take action even if they knew affiliated colleges were collecting capitation fee. “Designated officials take care of the complaints,” he said.
Demanding capitation fee for admissions is illegal.
“UGC issued its [Grievance Redressal] regulations in 2012 as did AICTE (AICTE Establishment of Mechanism of Grievance Redressal Regulation, 2012). The regulations redress grievances, including cases where money has been demanded in excess of what is specified in the declared admission policy or approved by the competent authority to be charged by the institutions,” said the HRD ministry in a statement while answering a question in Parliament.
“The HRD minister has hinted at a new national education policy. The new policy should galvanise the professional college admission system through a national testing facility which has been deliberately kept in cold storage,” said S Vaidhyasubrmaninam, dean, planning and development, SASTRA University, Thanjavur. “As a first step, the HRD ministry should streamline the admission system of all deemed universities through JEE/NEET.
Going forward, with the advancements in technology, it can jointly with states put in place a transparent admission system for all professional colleges. All this is possible within the directions of the Supreme Court in the TMA Pai Foundation case,” he said.
Med colleges that paraded fake faculty let off the hook
A.Subramani@timesgroup.com
Chennai
HC Says CBI Can't Probe Institutions
Three weeks after dismissing charges against a capitation fee-seeking medical college, the Madras high court let off three more accused of parading fake faculty , saying CBI, or any other agency , has no jurisdiction to probe the affairs of a medical college.
Quashing charges against the administrators of a medical college and dismissing CBI's petitions opposing the discharge of officials of two others, Justice Aruna Jagadeesan said on Wednesday: “Contravention of rules may be an offence against the statute, but is not a crime. There is no room or jurisdiction for any external agency to investigate the affairs of a medical institution coming within the purview of the Medical Council of India.“
Puducherry-based Sri Lakshmi Narayana Institute of Medical Sciences, Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute, near Chengal pet, and Melmaruvathur Adhiparasakthi Institute of Medical Sciences and Research faced the CBI probe for allegedly forging documents and parading faculty members who did not exist on their payrolls, said N Chandrasekaran, CBI special public prosecutor. While name-lending by doctors who make quick money by figuring on the faculty list of colleges only during MCI inspections is a widespread menace, these are the only colleges which actually faced an investigation.
On July 16, Justice Jagadeesan had discharged an official of Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute accused of demanding capitation fee, saying he was a staff member of a private university and hence could not be tried for offences punishable under the Preven
tion of Corruption Act, which was meant to haul up public servants and government staff. CBI registered the case after a joint sting operation by Times Now and The Times of India in 2009 caught the official demanding capitation fee on camera.
A trial court had discharged Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Melmaruvathur Adhi Parasakthi Institute after the CBI filed the chargesheet. The high court has now dismissed CBI’s appeal against their discharge and quashed the probe agency’s chargesheet against Sri Lakshmi Narayana Institute of Medical Sciences. In a rather identical
set of orders, all delivered on August 6, Justice Jagadeesan said: “The shortfall in faculties and submissions of fake/ forged documents would only disentitle the institution from getting renewal or permission.
Also, the errant medical doctors would be dealt with accordingly by the MCI.” Pointing out that erring doctors would face expulsion from the state medical register and the guilty institutions would lose recognition, the judge said such contraventions could not be considered a crime punishable under provisions of the Indian Penal Code or Prevention of Corruption Act. Neither the MCI nor the Union
ministry of health and family welfare, who are the actual aggrieved parties, has lodged any complaint, she said. None of the doctors alleged to have filed declaration forms before the MCI stating that they worked with these institutions had been cited as accused, she added. Also, the then MCI chairman, Ketan Desai, who was cited as the first accused in the first information report, was removed from the chargesheet along with some MCI inspectors. “The exclusion of principal offenders from being prosecuted, and seeking to fasten the liability on other conspirators, is opposed to rule of law,” Justice Jagadeesan said.
Clearing the three medical colleges, Justice Aruna Jagadeesan picked several holes in CBI's case.
For instance, she found merit in the argument that CBI was adopting a pick-andchoose attitude towards doctors and administrators of medical institutions. Though several MCI inspectors, who visited these colleges to assess their infrastructure, had been originally arraigned as accused, their names did not figure in the chargesheet filed before the trial court. Similarly, then MCI chairman Ketan Desai's name too was left out of the chargesheet. P 5
Aug 08 2014 : The Times of India (Chennai)
HC picks holes in med college probe
A.Subramani@timesgroup.com
Chennai:
Judge Cites Contradictions; CBI Says Institutions Played Fraud On MCI
In a rather sweeping interpretation of law, the Madras high court has held that since Medical Council Act is a ‘self-contained’ law having provisions to deal with misconduct by doctors and medical institutions, it is improper for the CBI to slap cases against the violators.
Clearing three medical colleges – Melmaruvathur Adhiparasakthi Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Sri Lakshmi Narayana Institute of Medical Sciences (Puducherry) and Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute -accused of presenting fake faculty of all criminal charges on Wednesday, Justice Aruna Jagadeesan picked several holes in CBI’s inestigation.
She found merit in the argument that the CBI adopted a pick-and-choose attitude in the cases. Though several MCI inspectors, who visited these colleges, had been originally arraigned as accused, their names did not figure in the chargesheet. Similarly , then MCI chairman Ketan Desai's name too was left out of the chargesheet. Many doctors, who were not faculty members in these colleges but lent their names to fulfil the student-teacher ratio, too were not included as accused, the judge said.
Another lacuna in the CBI chargsheet, according to Justice Jagadeesan, was the fact that first information reports were totally contrary to the chargesheets. The judge described as `strange' the transfer of the case from the special court for CBI cases to an another court.
CBI's senior public prosecutor N Chandrasekaran argued against the HC's interference at this stage. Citing Supreme Court judgments, he said the apex court had laid down certain parameters to be observed by the high courts exercising their powers to quash proceedings under Section 482 of CrPC. It should be exercised either to prevent abuse of process of any court or to secure the ends of justcie, he said.
At the time of framing of charges, a trial court needs to see whether prima facie a case has been made out or not. The question whether the charge framed will eventually stand proved or not can be determined only after evidence is recorded, Chandrasekaran submitted.
A fraud had been played on the MCI by medical college managements which had filed false declarations about faculty positions and other infrastructure facilities, he said.
HC gives medical colleges a shortcut out of CBI cases
A.Subramani@timesgroup.com
Chennai
People facing criminal cases cannot be allowed to “short-circuit a prosecution“ and achieve “sudden death“ of the case by using the high court to get proceedings quashed, said the Supreme Court a decade ago.
Exactly the contrary was achieved by four medical colleges from Tamil Nadu and Puducherry in the last three weeks, when they managed to wriggle out of CBI proceedings against them. Till July 6, they were facing cases for offences punishable under section 420 (cheating), 463 (forgery) and 120-B (conspiracy) after being caught parading fake faculty before Medical Council of India's inspection teams and furnishing false and forged documents. They are not accused personsentities any more, for the Madras high court has cleared them of all charges and declared that no external agency, including CBI, could have any jurisdiction over medical institutions coming under MCI.
In its three mostly-identical judgments, all delivered in one day, the HC quashed the CBI chargesheet against the promoters of Puducherry-based Sri Lakshmi Narayana Institute of Medical Sciences, and upheld the discharge of administrators of Melmaruvathur Adhiparasakthi Institute of Medical Sciences and Research and Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute.
“Taking away the CBI’s jurisdiction completely will give unfettered powers to MCI,” a veteran prosecutor said. “Almost every regulatory and statutory body such as Bar Council, AICTE and UGC has its own rules, including penal provisions, and that cannot be the grounds to keep those entities outside the purview of CBI,” he added.
No public interest litigation on the basis of mere newspaper reports will be entertained unless ground work is done by the PIL-petitioner approaching the court, the Madras high court has said.
The order, which means tightening of norms governing PILs in high courts, was passed by the first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M Sathyanarayanan. The bench was hearing a PIL that said medical colleges in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry had charged capitation fees of `35 lakh to `75 lakh this year. Dismissing the PIL, the judges pointed out that additional government pleader (education) P Sanjay Gandhi had made a state ment that the state has a fee to regulate fees in medical colleges that examines grievances. “No grievance is pending before the commission,“ Sanjay Gandhi told the court.
In the PIL, M Swaminathan wanted the court to form a committee to determine admission and fee for MBBS courses, and monitor the refractive implementation with provisions to penalise errant institutions.
He said that though MCI instructed medical colleges to conduct entrance examinations to select candidates, the institutions did it as a farce. “It is a cruel joke played on the future of millions of poor, innocent students,“ the PIL said. Capitation fee is “mother of all maladies“, he said, adding that it led to commercialisation of higher education.
Just over three weeks after the Madras high court let off a medical college caught on camera demanding a huge capitation fee, the Supreme Court seems to have realized the gravity of the menace, in a different context.
Conceding that it was rampant in medical and engineering colleges despite repeated judgments that demand and collection of capitation fee by even unaided private colleges was illegal, the apex court on Friday appointed former Union law minister Salman Khurshid to suggest measures to end the menace.
Khurshid will now act as amicus curiae to assist the court by preparing a detailed analysis of the issue and suggest an appropriate mechanism to effectively stop collection of capitation fee.
The bench also directed chief secretaries of the Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra to instruct their authorities to furnish details such as complaints against collection of capitation fee or any statewise data to Khurshid. “It is also open to Khurshid to seek any other data in connection with the issue of capitation fee,“ the bench said.
It also impleaded the Medical and Dental Councils of India and asked them to submit their responses in four weeks.On July 16, the high court let off dean of the Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute, saying he could not be tried under the Prevention of Corruption Act, as he was not a public servant.
He had been caught on camera, quoting capitation fee for MBBS admission in the college. In Tamil Nadu no medical college has so far been punished for collecting capitation fee. However, ac
cording to ex-IAS officer Ashok Vardhan Shetty, he had lodged a complaint against an engineering college in west Tamil Nadu, and the college was handed down a small sentence by a magistrate court.
“Till this day, it is the only conviction for capitation fee demand so far,” he told TOI.
ALLOWED TO WALK - MED COLLEGES OFF THE HOOK, CBI ON THE MAT
A.Subramani@timesgroup.com
Charges Of Fake Faculty, Capitation Fees Fail To Stick In High Court's Sweeping Verdict
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 Parasakthi Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute and Sri Lakshmi Narayana Institute of Medical Sciences. But 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.
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 `20 lakh to `35 lakh, was handed over to CBI at the agency's request. But 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. It thus became easy for the court to throw 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 materials it had in its possession,“ a veteran prosecutor told TOI. “The CBI has no explanation for removing MCI strongman and its chairmanpresident 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. Incidentally, Desai despite being MCI president was on the board of management 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 `2 crore as bribe from a medical college in Punjab. The case continues but Desai has made a come back as a member of the Gujarat Med ical 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 adminis trators 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. Letting the institutions off the hook, Justice Aruna Jagadeesan said since the Medical Council Act was a 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.
