By IANS,
Kochi : The Kerala High Court Wednesday declared the entrance examination conducted by 11 private medical colleges as null and void and asked the state government to take over all the seats for making fresh admissions.
The judgment has hit more than 500 students who had paid hefty capitation fees for admissions to these colleges.
Justice Antony Dominic delivered the judgment after a student filed a petition alleging that the private college managements flouted the rules.
The court also came down heavily on the government for its failure to perform the duty of a watchdog.
The judge described the government’s role as shameful, after the government said that the entrance examination was conducted in a fair manner.
According to the rules, 50 percent of the seats every year could be filled up by the private managements after conducting their own entrance examination.
A private TV channel recently aired a sting operation showing footage related to admissions to the private college seats. The sting hinted that the admissions were manipulated by college managements by allegedly telling aspirants to pay more than Rs.3 million each as capitation fees. Once the fee was paid, the aspirants sailed through the entrance examination.
Fazal Gafoor, head of an association of private medical colleges, said that they were expecting this outcome.
“Now we are left with no other option but to go in for an appeal against the verdict that has come out today,” said Gafoor.