'Students not to be left in lurch between fights'- Supreme Court seeks solution in CPS derecognition row

New Delhi: While considering the issue of medical courses offered by the College of Physicians and Surgeons (CPS), Mumbai, the Supreme Court today i.e., on September 12, requested the intervention of the Attorney General for India, R Venkataramani, to arrive at a viable solution to secure the future of the CPS students after the Bombay High Court recently upheld the derecognition of these courses. The Postgraduate Medical Education Board (PGMEB) of the National Medical Commission (NMC) derecognised all the courses offered by CPS on August 16, 2024, on the grounds of failure to comply with the regulatory mechanism under the National Medical Commission Act, 2019. The show-cause notice stated that the CPS, Mumbai considers itself an examination-like body National Board of Examination in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) having authority to give medical qualification. However, it pointed out that while National Board is a government organisation under the NMC Act, CPS is a non-government organisation having no authority to permit or recognise any course of qualification run by any hospital or to conduct examination or award degree. Medical Dialogues had previously reported that earlier this year, the Bombay High Court dismissed the plea filed by the College of Physicians and Surgeons (CPS) challenging the derecognition of many postgraduate diploma courses that were deleted from the schedule of the Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC), 1965. Challenging the HC order, CPS filed a plea before the Supreme Court. As per the latest media report by Live law, before the Apex Court bench comprising Justice KV Viswanathan, Senior Advocates Vikas Singh and Sanjay R Hegde submitted that the future of hundreds of students admitted into the course offered by the CPS is currently at stake. He further added, that the students have been left in limbo as they were awaiting to appear in the examination. Therefore, Advocate Singh urged the Court to allow the conduct of the examination, subject to the outcome of the decision. On the other hand, the original PIL petitioner, also a former President of the Maharashtra Medical Council, submitted that he had found that the CPS courses were illegal and no proper permission was sought for them, and the High Court had also allowed his PIL. Meanwhile, the counsel appearing for NMC highlighted that the CPS course was discontinued in 2009, but it was again started for a few colleges in 2009. However, the counsel pointed out that CPS committed a mischief by allowing government hospitals to conduct the course despite the NMC continuously denotifying it. The Attorney General for India, R Venkataramani, submitted before the top court bench that he would explore the possibilities of regularising it to the extent that the exams can be smoothly conducted. "Today, the only question is whether students always enrolled, their fate has to be taken into consideration without going into the larger questions. We had a discussion, if we are going in that direction, give me about two to three weeks to find out the best modality so that we don't skip again... It's a question of holding exam in a proper way," stated the AG. Taking note of the submission, the Supreme Court bench ordered, "Due to a paucity of time, we are unable to start with the hearing of the matter. We are conscious that this litigant has something to do with the future of hundreds of students. Today, the only concern is about the examination to be conducted by the examining body, namely, the College of Physicians and Surgeon CPS House. We request the learned Attorney General to intervene and assist this Court in this litigation. Learned Attorney General would submit that he could speak to the authorities concerned and try to work out the modalities so as to protect the interests of students already admitted and awaiting conduct of examination. Learned Attorney General requested for three weeks time to come back with some arrangement by which the interest of the students can be protected. We have yet to hear the matter own its own merits, we are yet to look into the impugned judgments however, our first endevaour is to see that students are not left in the lurch between the fights. We requested learned Attorney General to work out something and come to us. By any chance, any viable solution is not brought into account, we will proceed to hear the entire matter on its own merits." The matter has been listed for further hearing on October 8.