Kolkata, Nov. 5 -- Serious allegations of irregularities in MBBS admissions and seat allocation have surfaced against the state Health department and the West Bengal Medical Counselling Committee (WBMCC), after a medical aspirant claiming to have been denied a seat moved the Calcutta High Court.
The aspirant alleged that candidates were admitted to several state-run medical colleges under "Donor Quota" through an offline process, favouring lower-merit candidates over genuinely meritorious ones, completely flouting Supreme Court directives and National Medical Commission (NMC) guidelines.
The writ petition filed on behalf of the petitioner by Advocate Afrin Nahar Mandal brought to light glaring inconsistencies in the undergraduate medical admission in the state, with the WBMCC being accused of keeping "Donor Quota" seats outside the universal online merit counselling process and distributing them entirely offline based on the arbitrary recommendations of private trusts.
Therefore, those who have secured medical admission in various medical colleges under "Donor Quota" did not allegedly take part in the mandatory online system. The petitioner alleged that despite securing positions in the state-wide merit list, genuinely meritorious candidates were deprived to make way for the candidates with lower merit.
The petition highlighted Section 12 of the NMC Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023, which makes it mandatory to fill 100 per cent of seats in all medical institutions across the country through centralised online counselling based on the NEET-UG merit list.
As per norms, the All-India Central Medical Counselling Committee conducts counselling for 15 per cent of seats, while the respective state government carries out counselling for the remaining 85 per cent of seats under state quotas; donor quota seats fall under this 85 per cent of state quota. But the admission should be done through the centralised online counselling portal designated by the respective state.
The petition also pointed out that in 1994, the Supreme Court, in the case State of Gujarat vs. MP. Shah Charitable Trust, clearly ruled that simply because an individual or organisation made a one-time financial donation to the government in the past, they do not retain the right to nominate candidates of their choice to government medical college seats year after year. Such "permanent private quotas" in public interest or government institutions are a direct violation of the "Right to Equality" enshrined under Article 14 of the Constitution.
While general students must follow strict guidelines for online counselling, names for donor quota seats were recommended offline with extreme secrecy, the petitioner alleged.
The petitioner demanded that the state government submit the names, files, and related documents of candidates admitted offline under the donor quota to the court.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.