SC lifts HC stay, paves way for admission process to restart in MP's paramedical courses

New Delhi, Aug 1 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Friday paved the way for restarting the admission process in paramedical courses for the academic years 2023–24 and 2024–25 in Madhya Pradesh.

On July 16, a division bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court at Jabalpur stayed the ongoing recognition and admission process for paramedical courses for 2023–24 and 2024–25 by taking note of a plea filed by the law students' association.

The MP High Court had stayed the admission process in paramedical courses after taking note of a plea filed by the law students' association.

A top court bench comprising Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran was apprised by senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the registrar of Madhya Pradesh Paramedical Council, that such a drastic order was passed by the high court on a petition filed by some law students having no locus in the matter.

The senior lawyer referred to COVID-19 pandemic and said that certain paramedical courses in the states could not begin on time due to the pandemic.

He said the registrar of the Paramedical Council grants recognition to institutions and regulates the admission process and the impugned order of the high court has brought everything to a standstill.

"How can law students file such a petition?" the CJI asked, and stayed the high court order.

The CJI also issued notices to the state government and others on the plea of the Paramedical Council.

The high court stay order came following a move to permit 166 paramedical institutions to begin courses for the 2023–24 academic year, despite granting recognition to these institutions only in 2025.

The high court found the timeline "illogical" and questioned how institutions could start academic sessions for 2023–24 in the year 2025 when they did not even exist at the time the courses were supposed to commence.

It examined the order of July 14 of the Paramedical Council granting permission to 166 institutions to offer courses for 2023–24.

However, the high court pointed out that the courses were originally scheduled to run from November 2023 to October 2024 and that the last date for institutions to apply for recognition was December 31, 2023.

The bench expressed strong disapproval of the retrospective recognition, stating, "It belies all logic, sensibility and questions the sanity of a reasonable man how these institutions could be allowed to start the course for the year 2023-24 in the year 2025." PTI SJK SJK KSS KSS