A three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court hearing the fate of hundreds of medical students stuck in the Vyapam scam was faced with an embarrassing situation after its order seeking clarification on a split verdict, rendered by a two-judge Bench, was returned on Tuesday with a notice that such a reference amounted to “intra-court appeal” that cannot be made under the Constitution or any law in the country.

The three-judge Bench, headed by Justice JS Khehar, had on July 28, 2016 sought a clarification from a bench of Justices J Chelameswar and Abhay Manohar Sapre on whether the order passed by the latter on May 12, 2016 provided scope for rehearing the entire matter. The two-judge Bench’s order created confusion in the minds of the larger bench as both judges agreed that the students who took admission in the MBBS course in Madhya Pradesh from 2008-12 used illegal means but in its final conclusion, one judge quashed their degrees while the other suggested that degrees could be handed over to the students on the condition that they serve in hospitals run by armed forces for a five-year period.

Dealing with the reference order, the Bench of Justices Chelameswar and Sapre in their common order said, “We completely fail to understand the reference made to Article 145(5) of the Constitution in the order dated July 28…a rehearing of the entire matter as apparently suggested to the larger bench, in our opinion, would amount to an intra-court appeal…neither the Constitution of India nor any other law of this country provides an intra-court appeal insofar as Supreme Court is concerned.”

The Bench said that its order of May 12 was “concurrent” on the finding that the examination process conducted by Vyapam for 2008 to 2012 was vitiated as regards the appellant students as they stood benefitted from such vitiated process. The only point of difference, according to the bench was on whether the affected students, numbering almost 634, should be disentitled to retain the benefits of the five-year medical training they obtained as a result of such a “tainted” examination process.

Wondering how there can be scope for re-hearing of the matter which already stands settled by them, the two judge bench went on to State, “If the larger Bench of this court wishes to create such an intra-court appeal, we obviously are powerless to stop it. We can only record our understanding of the law on the question.”

This order will now be listed before the three-judge bench where the court is expected to hear on the limited scope whether the students can retain their medical degrees having gone through the rigorous five years of medical training. The lawyers for the aggrieved students had submitted that this could be possible if the court moulds relief under Article 142, the all-encompassing Constitutional power that enables Supreme Court to do complete justice in any case.