HC clears way to continue MBBS admission process

The High Court yesterday cleared the way for the authorities concerned to continue the MBBS admission process for the academic session 2020-21.

The HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Sardar Md Rashed Jahangir rejected a writ petition that sought an order on the government to suspend the MBBS admission process, claiming the merit list as faulty.

The bench, however, observed that if any candidate has any grievance over the MBBS admission process or its merit list, they can apply to the Directorate General of Medical Education for remedy, and the DG must resolve the problems in seven days after receiving the complaint.

Additional Attorney General Mohammad Mehedi Hasan Chowdhury told The Daily Star that there is no legal bar for the government to continue the MBBS admission process for the academic session 2020-21 following the HC order.

Deputy Attorney General Bipul Bagmar also represented the state while lawyer Mohammad Humayun Kabir Pallab appeared for the writ petitioners during a virtual hearing on the petition.

The writ petition was filed with the HC on May 19.

Supreme Court lawyer Humayun Kabir Pallab submitted the petition on behalf of 324 candidates, who were disqualified as per the "faulty merit list", requesting the HC to direct the authorities concerned with the government to cancel "faulty merit list" and to publish a fresh merit list through reevaluating the MBBS admission test result.

The DGME on April 4 published the results of the MBBS admission test for the academic session 2020-21.

A total of 48,975 students passed against 12,690 seats in 47 public and 70 private medical colleges across the country for the academic year 2020-21.

There are 4,350 seats in public medical colleges and 8,340 in private medical colleges.

On April 2, a total of 1,16,792 aspirants appeared in the admission test of the MBBS course for the academic session.