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Saraswati Medical College v. Union of India & Anr.

Special Leave Petition (Civil) · Neutral citation not assigned (Special Leave Petition (Civil) No. 26278 of 2015)Decided 30 Sept 2015
Special Leave Petition (Civil) No. 26278 of 2015
Justice M.Y. Eqbal · Justice C. Nagappan

Background

Saraswati Medical College's application to start a new 150-seat MBBS course at Unnao, Uttar Pradesh for 2015-16 was disapproved by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, acting on deficiencies (faculty shortage, resident doctors, bed occupancy, hostels, etc.) reported by the Medical Council of India (MCI) after two rounds of inspection. The college's writ petition challenging this disapproval was dismissed by the Delhi High Court, which followed its own recent rulings in similar college cases, prompting this special leave petition.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court examined both sides' claims and found fault on both: the college had not actually removed all the deficiencies, but the MCI had also not strictly followed the inspection procedure required under the Act and Regulations. Rather than deciding outright whether the college deserved permission, the Court directed the MCI to carry out a fresh inspection strictly following the proper procedure within two months, to consider whether any remaining deficiency was curable, and directed the Union of India to take a final decision within a month of that report: specifically so the college could still be considered for the 2016-17 academic year. The SLP was disposed of on these directions.

Lesson Learnt

In regulatory disputes over professional institution approvals, courts will often order a fair, procedurally-correct re-inspection rather than simply ruling for one side, when both the institution and the regulator have fallen short of what the rules require.

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

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