CBI to probe owner quota in Apollo MBBS

By S A Ishaqui

Hyderabad, Nov 22: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Wednesday directed the CBI to probe alleged irregularities in MBBS admissions of management quota seats by the Apollo Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad.

While cancelling the adm-issions of 34 candidates, a division bench comprising Justice V. Eswaraiah and Justice N. Ravi Shankar ruled that they weren’t entitled to pursue MBBS in Apollo. It also directed the Medical Council of India and NTR Health University to take action against the institute for violating the Undergraduate Medical Education Regulations of the MCI and to cancel its permission and affiliation.

The bench was disposing a batch of pleas relating to admission of students in the first year of the MBBS course in Apollo Medical Institute alleging that the management had allotted seats to less meritorious students without following prescribed guidelines.

The bench directed the CBI to conduct a probe from the stage when the institute applied for permission under the MCI regulations to the stage of admissions relating to 40 seats under management quota (‘C’ category) in the institute.

“This court is constrained to give this direction having regard to the procedure adopted by Apollo Institute in granting admission to 34 students who are less meritorious than the first 40 of the merit list of 97 candidates,” the bench noted.

The bench further said that it “cannot rule out the petitioners’ contention that the Apollo Institute has given admission to those 40 students by collecting capitation fees which was prohibited under the AP Educ-ational Institutions (Regul-ation of Admissions and Prohibition of Capitation Fee) Act. Even otherwise, it is considered necessary to order for a CBI probe in view of the circumstances under which we cancelled the admissions of the 34 less meritorious students”.

The bench directed the CBI to take appropriate act-ion against all concerned in accordance with law witho-ut any delay, under the dir-ect supervision of the concerned CBI joint-director.