The admission to private medical and dental colleges in Madhya Pradesh under the Dental and Medical Admission test (DMAT) seems to be “worse” than Vyapam, remarked the Supreme Court on Thursday while issuing notice on a set of petitions demanding a Court-monitored CBI probe into the examination conducted by private medical-dental colleges since 2009.
The bench headed by Chief Justice Hl Dattu sought response of the Centre, CBI and MP Government on separate pleas by Anand Rai and Ashish Chaturvedi, who claimed to be whistleblowers of the Vyapam scam.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal who represented one of the petitioners submitted newspaper reports to indicate link between the Vyapam scam and the DMAT carried out by a group of 15 private dental colleges and six private medical colleges. There are roughly 2,800 seats in these colleges and almost 85 per cent of seats are filled through DMAT each year.
Although the bench also comprising Justices Arun Mishra and Amitava Roy initially suggested that the case had nothing to do with the Vyapam cases, advocate Prashant Bhushan exposed the nexus between the Vyapam officials and owners of private medical and dental colleges. Most of the impersonators who appeared in the Vyapam exam for candidates who paid money to middlemen and agents were adjusted against the 42 per cent state quota in private colleges. According to Bhushan, these candidates would get their money and vacate seats en masse on September 30, the last date of filling admissions, thus allowing private colleges to fill the seats from management quota at premium rates. Despite this, no FIR was registered in the DMAT case.
These admissions were illegal admissions for which some of the colleges were even fined heavily by the Admission and Fee Regulation Committee last year. Sibal even showed how same set of persons involved in Vyapam scam were involved in DMAT irregularities.
A statement given by the Controller of Vyapam Examination showed how similar modus operandi was employed by the accused in the DMAT exam similar to what was followed in Vyapam.
The bench said, “If it is true, then it (DMAT) is worse than Vyapam”. The bench has posted the matters for hearing in August.