SC reprimands DGHS for denying admission to medical student

The Supreme Court has reprimanded the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) for denying admission to a medical science student who had secured a high rank in the merit list. A vacation bench comprising Justices B Sudarshan Reddy and Aftab Alam yesterday threatened that it will reopen the entire admission process and order a thorough probe to fix responsibility on those responsible for illegally denying admission to petitioner Ruchika Arora. Ruchika was selected for admission in Government Medical College and Hospital, Amritsar after scoring high rank in the entrance test held by All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). She, however, preferred Chatrapati Sri Sahu Medical College, Lucknow and she was told by the DGHS to proceed to Lucknow for the admission. However, the college authorities in Lucknow told her that there was no seat vacant for her in the college. On coming back to Amritsar, Amritsar Medical College Authorities also told her that her seat has already been allotted to some other student despite the fact that she had paid the entire fee before leaving for Lucknow. She approached the Supreme Court, which was shocked to see what has been done to a meritorious student and told the government counsel, "You have left the student neither here nor there." The apex court directed the DGHS to make sure that she is given admission immediately and said if the government fails to do it, consequences will follow.