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Dental Council of India vs. Sailendra Sharma & Others

Civil Appeal · 2022 INSC 1136Decided 21 Oct 2022
Civil Appeal No. 7611 of 2022
M.R. Shah · M.M. Sundresh

Background

Several students got admission to postgraduate dental courses (NEET MDS 2018) in three private Chhattisgarh dental colleges on 31 May 2018, after the official 4:30 p.m. cut-off for the counselling process, and without the colleges informing the state counselling authority (Directorate of Medical Education) that these seats had actually fallen vacant. When the state government found out, it cancelled these admissions on 6 June 2018. The students challenged the cancellation before the Chhattisgarh High Court, which ruled in their favour and let them continue the course; the Dental Council of India then appealed to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the admissions were illegal "backdoor" admissions: the colleges were required to report vacant seats to the Directorate so they could be filled through proper counselling on merit, and no admission could be granted after the fixed cut-off time. The fact that the students had continued studying for years because of an interim High Court order did not entitle them to keep their seats, since courts should not let anyone gain a permanent advantage merely from an interim order later found wrong. The Court also rejected the argument that letting unfilled seats go to waste justified bypassing the rules, relying on its own consistent precedent that the admission schedule must be followed strictly. It set aside the High Court's judgment and restored the government's cancellation order.

Lesson Learnt

Admissions to professional courses must strictly follow the prescribed counselling process, seat-vacancy disclosure rules, and cut-off deadlines; an admission obtained outside this process, even one allowed to continue for years under an interim court order, can still be cancelled, and continuing a course under interim protection creates no vested right to complete it.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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