Wanted to give chance to meritorious students, UT tells HC

CHANDIGARH: Defending its decision of inviting applications for admission to MBBS course after the last date of June 24, the Chandigarh administration on Wednesday informed the Punjab and Haryana high court the decision was taken to give opportunity to those meritorious students who could not apply in view of lesser number of seats advertised earlier.
In its reply filed through director-principal of Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32, Atul Sachdev, the Chandigarh administration said, "Since the selection process for MBBS course is based on the criterion of merit in National Eligibility-cum-Entrance test (NEET), such an opportunity will attract more meritorious candidates for the additional 50 seats in MBBS course."
The reply was in response to a petition filed by a student, Arpit Agarwal, who was awaiting admission to GMCH-32 in the second round of counselling.
The petitioner has sought quashing of the decision of UT administration of inviting fresh applications for admission, as the last date for submission of registration forms was June 24. "Despite the fact that the prospectus specifically provided that incomplete applications were liable to be rejected and application form would not be entertained after June 24, the college accepted incomplete forms as well as accepted forms after the last date," the petitioner argued.
He said the UT administration was acting arbitrarily. The controversy erupted after Chandigarh administration invited fresh applications for admission to 50 seats of MBBS course in GMCH-32. These are additional seats available due to enhancement in intake capacity, permitted by the Medical Council of India (MCI) as a one-time measure for the academic session 2013-2014 for 32 medical colleges, government and private, throughout the country.
The petitioner has also claimed that the other colleges in the country, where enhancement of 50 seats for MBBS course has been permitted, are following the original merit list without inviting new applications.