The Supreme Court on Monday sealed the fate of 268 medical students who took admission through Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board, better known for its Hindi acronym Vyapam, between 2008 and 2013. The SC upheld the judgment of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, declaring their admissions to be illegal against the backdrop of the Vyapam scam. The scam involved adoption of illegal means by these students in gaining admission into the MBBS course by paying huge bribes to high-ups.
The decision by a three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar came on a petition filed by 139 students who were either on the brink of completing their five-year course or had already completed their medical degree and begun practice. The Bench, also comprising Justices Kurian Joseph and Arun Mishra, said, “Keeping in mind the conscious involvement of the appellants in gaining admission to the MBBS course, by means of a fraudulent stratagem of trickery, it is not possible for us to ignore or overlook, the declaration of law with reference to fraud. Nothing obtained by fraud can be sustained.”
The three-judge Bench was constituted following a split verdict by the apex court on May 12, 2016. While both judges had concurred on the issue that the admission of the petitioner students was invalid one of the judges cancelled the admissions. The other judge, however, innovated relief by asking the students to retain their degrees by offering community service by serving at a hospital run by Defence forces.
But the three-judge Bench said, “Admission of the appellants to the MBBS course was the outcome of a well orchestrated strategy of deceit and deception. And therefore, it is not possible to accept, that the involvement of the appellants was not serious. In fact, it was most grave and extreme.”
In 2013, soon after the scam broke, Vyapam carried out an internal investigation and identified 634 students, who they felt had used unfair means like copying to get admission to the MBBS course. It then cancelled their admission; but 268 of them moved the Madhya Pradesh High Court, which upheld the decision of the Vyapam.
As the SC has now upheld HC’s decision, the judgment makes the admission of all 634 students null and void.
Out of the 268 students whose admission stood cancelled, 129 had accepted the decision of MP Professional Examination Board cancelling their results and took alternate admission. But Monday’s
decision has affected the lot of 139 who fuelled hopes of a possible relief.