According to the Madras High Court, a postgraduate medical seat in a government college is a national resource in and of itself, and as such, deserving applicants who are admitted to such seats are not permitted to drop out at will, to the detriment of another student who could have enrolled in the course. Justice D. Bharathi Chakravarthy commented while dismissing a writ petition brought forth jointly by the Directorate of Medical Education (DME) selection committee and the Dean of Madras Medical College (MMC) in 2023 in opposition to a decision reached by a single High Court judge in 2019.

The first division bench upheld Justice G. Jayachandrans order from June 27, 2019, which instructed the DME and the Dean of MMC to return the MBBS degree certificate as well as the transfer certificate to writ petitioner R. Aashritha without demanding that she pay discontinuation fees of 15 lakhs just because the prospectus was unclear.

He explained that the author of the prospectus had introduced ambiguity regarding the payment of discontinuance fees and that, therefore, the student should stand to gain from this ambiguity. Hence, they should not be compelled to pay the fees.

The Bench stated that although prospectus clause 24(c) stated that candidates who leave the programme after the final round of counselling must pay discontinuation fees, clause 27(a) stated to the contrary that those who leave the programme after the May 31, 2019 deadline must pay the penalty specified in clause 27(a).

Justice Chakravarthy ruled that the appeal was rejected due to the vagueness of the prospectus. The Division Bench determined that the student does not have to pay the discontinuance fees due to the inconsistency between the two articles and the fact that the writ petitioner had already stopped on May 3, 2019.

(Source: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/postgraduate-medical-seats-are-national-resources-meritorious-students-should-not-waste-them-says-madras-high-court/article66701899.ece )