Chennai, Feb 26 (PTI) The Madras High Court has lambasted the then secretary of the Selection Committee for medical admissions in 2020, who had committed grave irregularities in admitting candidates for PG courses and directed him to pay Rs. 4 lakh each two meritorious candidates who were deprived of seats and ordered police probe on the entire issue.

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The court gave the directions and made the observations while passing further interim orders on a batch of writ petitions from three meritorious candidates on Friday.

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"If this Court does not step in to take action in accordance with law, the faith that has been reposed on this Court by the public would have a whirlwind downfall. Therefore, on a consideration of the entire materials placed before this Court in the form of enquiry reports and material documents, it clearly transpires that Dr G Selvarajan, the then Secretary, Selection Committee, Directorate of Medical Education, has not only been instrumental in depriving the meritorious candidates of their rightful seats under the management quota in the private medical colleges, which are under the scanner of the enquiry officer, by not following the mandate of the Medical Council of India and the orders of the Hon'ble Supreme Court, but even on a holistic consideration of the case, this Court is of the view that the nexus does not start or end with him," Justice M Dhandapani said.

The tentacles of illegality are cast far and wide as the perpetrator of the crime could not be an isolated individual in the form of the then Secretary, but the said officer would definitely had been aided by other persons in stage-managing the aforesaid act, which has deprived the meritorious candidates of their right to seats of their choice under the management quota.

"Therefore, a deeper probe into the acts committed by the then Secretary, as also the other persons, whoever be it, requires to be looked into without which a complete probe cannot be said to have been made," the judge said.

The amount of Rs 8 lakh shall be initially paid by the government within four weeks to the two petitioners and later recovered from the retirement benefits of Selvarajan, the judge added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)