Mahavir Institute Of Medical Sciences Fined Rs 2 Crore For Fraud

New Delhi, 9 Aug 2018: The Supreme Court has fined a medical college Rs 2 crore for trying to deceive inspectors by projecting healthy people as patients as it dismissed a plea the institute had filed to reverse a decision the Medical Council of India had taken.

The MCI had decided not to renew permission for the Telangana-based Mahavir Institute of Medical Sciences to admit its third batch of 150 MBBS students for the academic year 2018-19.

"The petitioner is not entitled to any relief as... (it) does not meet the required standards for renewal of permission for admission to the third batch of MBBS students. We take serious note of the fraud played by the petitioner in projecting healthy persons as patients in their hospital for the purpose of showing compliance of the minimum standards," a bench of Justices S.A. Bobde and L. Nageswara Rao said.

"We, therefore, dismiss the above writ petition with (an) exemplary cost of Rupees Two Crore to be paid by the petitioner, within a period of four weeks from today, to the Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Welfare Trust."

The order, passed on August 6, was formally uploaded on Wednesday.

The institute had earlier submitted an application for admitting the third batch (second renewal) of students and an inspection was conducted on November 8 and 9, 2017.

The MCI's executive committee had considered the assessor's report and, because of deficiencies, the decision was taken to recommend to the central government not to renew permission for admission to the third batch.

The institute was also informed about the deficiencies found during the November inspections.

The petitioner submitted a compliance report to the MCI regarding the deficiencies and a compliance verification assessment was conducted on March 13 this year.

The MCI executive committee considered the compliance verification assessment report and recommended to the Union government not to approve the institute's plea for permission to run the course for the third batch.

The Centre agreed with the suggestion. The college then appealed in the apex court, challenging the assessment report on the ground that it was fallacious and inaccurate.

But the bench dismissed the appeal, saying this court was "not equipped to adjudicate a factual dispute regarding the existence of staff, patients, clinical material and other facilities in a medical college and hospital".

"Deference has to be shown to findings of an expert body which has found that the facilities in the petitioner-college are inadequate. Unless there is a jurisdictional error or ex facie perversity in an inspection report, this court will not interfere with a decision taken on the basis of (the) recommendation of an expert body," the court said.

"We are of the opinion that the decision of the Government of India not to grant approval does not warrant interference. The assessors after a physical inspection found that a number of patients were not genuine. The assessors were of the opinion that patients with minor ailments were admitted in the hospital.

"There were others who were shown as patients with no serious health condition deserving an admission in the hospital. This was done by the petitioner with a view to get renewal for admission of students by showing that it was complying with the minimum standards. The petitioner is guilty of deception and fraud," the court said.

Citation: Mahavir Institute of Medical Sciences & Anr vs UOI, Supreme Court of India, Writ Petition (C) No. 818 of 2018, D/d 6.8.2018.The Telegraph India