Why should CBI enquiry not be conducted into PG medical seat scam, asks Madras High Court

The Madras High Court, while listening to a plea filed by the former secretary of the selection committee, Directorate of Medical Education, to quash the CB-CID probe into the PG medical seat scam, asked him why a CBI enquiry should not be conducted into the same.

The Madras High court bench, consisting of Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy, on Monday, April 18, has asked why a CBI inquiry should not be conducted in the case regarding the allotment of PG seats in medical colleges, which was done without NEET-based counselling.

The case is with regard to an order that was pronounced by a single judge bench. On February 22, the single-judge bench which had heard a petition by two PG medical candidates, had ordered a Crime Branch, Crime Investigation Department (CB-CID) inquiry on how PG seats to medical colleges were allocated.

The first bench of the Madras High court was hearing a writ petition filed by G Selvarajan, former secretary of the Selection Committee, Directorate of Medical Education (DME), which sought the first bench to quash the inquiry.

The CB-CID, which was instructed to submit its findings in a closed cover to the court, had unearthed that the counselling did not adhere to the Supreme Court’s directions on medical admission, which had to be NEET based.

The probe by the CB-CID also found a nexus between the selection committee secretary, other officials, and private medical colleges. The probe found irregularities in the filling of 90 of 113 PG vacancies in 13 private colleges in Tamil Nadu.

Meanwhile, the respondent's counsel had argued that there was no illegality in the way the seats were allocated and that mop-up counselling was not done even for the government seats due to shortage of time considering the unprecedented Covid-19 situation in 2020-2021.

The single judge bench had ordered the chief secretary to freeze Selvarajan’s (since retired) pension benefits.