File Photo: Supreme Court of India
The Supreme Court today sought responses from the Centre, Madhya Pradesh and others on several pleas seeking CBI probe into irregularities in Dental and Medical Admission Test (DMAT) to fill management and government seats in private medical colleges in the state.
"Issue notice. Returnable within four weeks," a bench comprising Chief Justice HL Dattu and Justices Arun Kumar Mishra and Amitava Roy said.
The order for issuing notices to parties including Principal Secretary, Medical Education Department and Madhya Pradesh Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee, came after senior advocate Kapil Sibal and advocate Prashant Bhushan informed the bench about the magnitude of the scam.
Dealing with the modus operandi, Mr Bhushan, appearing for Anand Rai who claims to be the whistle-blower in Vyapam and DMAT scams, said that seats in private medical colleges are filled up through Vyapam and DMAT.
"The seat distribution in private dental and medical college is in ratio of 42:43:15" for state quota, management quota and NRI quota respectively, the plea said.
While the state quota of 42 per cent is filled through Vyapam which is already part of the CBI probe, the management seats are filled up through DMAT conducted by the Association of Private Dental and Medical Colleges (APDMC).
Unscrupulous students of medical colleges sit in DMAT to help others in consideration of money and later, give up their seats at the last moment as they are already studying in one or the other medical colleges, Mr Sibal said explaining the modus operandi.
The seats vacated by the "racketeer students are filled up illegally by private medical colleges," he said. The submission was supported by Mr Bhushan too.
The bench, which at the beginning, said that the pleas may be heard by the High Court, later issued notices on them. It also sought responses on another PIL of another whistle-blower Ashish Chaturvedi, filed through advocate Vaibhav Srivastava.