CALCUTTA, 23 December 2004 — The West Bengal government plans to appeal to a larger bench of the Supreme Court against the expulsion of 74 Non-Resident Indian MBBS students from two medical colleges.
But the announcement by Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya yesterday is being described as an “eyewash” by legal experts who say that the CM is trying his utmost to defuse a highly embarrassing situation by resorting to gimmicks.
Buddhadev also offered to admit the expelled NRI MBBS students to “medical-related technology” courses. But the victims — whose hunger strike entered the ninth day — flatly rejected the Marxist CM’s offer.
Last week, two Supreme Court judges ordered the state government to expel 74 NRI MBBS students from Calcutta’s S. S. K. M. Medical College and the Midnapore Medical College where they were studying after paying one million rupees per seat as capitation fee to the West Bengal government.
“Everyone — including the evicted students and their parents — know it’s the end of the road. But the CM is talking about appealing to a bigger bench,” said Arunava Ghosh, a leading advocate and opposition Trinamool Congress legislator.
“Technically, one can file appeal after appeal. But it’s better to be realistic given the clear-cut verdict in the matter”, added Arunava.
But Buddhadev said: “Last time, our lawyers failed to convince a division bench. We have decided to make another attempt to argue our case before a larger apex court bench. It’s our legal right to explore every avenue for justice.”
Questioned by newsmen, Buddhadev elaborated that besides appealing to a bigger bench, the government was ready to admit the expelled NRI MBBS students to the West Bengal University for Technology (WBUT).
The CM was speechless when asked if the NRI boys and girls would be awarded an MBBS degree after completing the WBUT course. The CM himself added that the expelled candidates were totally against joining WBUT. “But that’s all we can offer them. Our hands are tied. We can’t go against Supreme Court orders.”
Gurudas Bhattacharya, father of one of the dumped NRI students, said: “We have rejected the CM’s offer. How can we send our children to an unknown university to do an unknown course?”
The government is now refunding the one million rupees capitation fee it charged NRIs for studying medicine in the two state-run medical colleges where 50 percent of seats were reserved for them.
The vacancies are being filled by students from the merit list of the 2003 Joint Entrance Examination results who went to court against the communist government’s controversial scheme to admit NRI students against cash payments.
In July 2003, the state government issued a public notification reserving 50 percent of 208 seats in the two medical colleges for NRI students at one million rupees per seat.
Ignoring protests by students who had cleared the tough JEE, the government admitted 104 NRI students. The meritorious students went to the Calcutta High Court which summarily scrapped the NRI quota altogether. But the state government appealed to the Supreme Court which slashed the NRI quotas from 50 percent to 15 percent resulting in mass expulsions.
