The Supreme Court on Wednesday, December 31  ordered three private medical colleges in Madhya Pradesh to re-admit 37 students whose admissions had been cancelled. These private colleges had admitted 37 students over and above their regular intake of students for the courses. Hearing the petition filed by the 37 students, Justice Deepak Mishra and Justice Amitava Roy passed the judgment in favour of the students. The apex court further ordered the colleges to reduce the same number of seats in the next academic session.

Talking to PaGaLGuY, Advocate Aditya Sanghi, who was representing the students, said, “After getting a positive judgment from MP High Court on November 9, the matter went to the Supreme Court. The apex court ordered in our favour and said that students should not suffer because of the human error at the part of administration.” The DME (Directorate of Medical Education) Madhya Pradesh on October 21, called up the students and informed them about cancellation of their seats. 28 students from Amaltas Medical College, Dewas, 8 from People’s Medical College, Bhopal and 1 from R. D. Gardi Medical College, Ujjain were kicked out by the DME.

However, Mukul Rohatgi, representing the state of MP in the apex court, accepted that it was a human error committed by the DME. The judges further stated that it is not correct to cancel the admission of students because of the error of the authorities. “Quite a few of the students who were thrown out of the colleges had more marks than those who acquired admission. The Supreme Court order will do justice to them,” said RTI activist and VYAPAM scam whistleblower Anand Rai.

The judgment will allow the students to get back to their classes, but it will be interesting to see what arrangements are made to help them make up for the lost time.

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Read here about how government decisions and NEET 2016 confusion resulted in an aspirant losing her seat this year.