The National Medical Council (NMC) will verify admissions of students in MBBS course and cancel the admission if it finds out if the candidate was admitted without enduring the central and state counselling process. NMC’s verification exercise is aimed at stopping illegal admissions and curtailing institutional corruption to bring in transparency.  

To make medical admissions transparent, the National Medical Council (NMC), through a letter in July 2023, asked authorities to make necessary provisions for conducting the counselling (both Undergraduate and Postgraduate) in online mode, for all rounds including stray vacancy rounds in private medical colleges, from the academic year 2023 and 2024 However, it observed the prevalence of unauthorised admissions in certain colleges and universities, circumventing the established channels of central and state counselling agencies. “Students engaging in misleading practices during the admission process contribute to a corrupt scheme. Following verification by the NMC, seats secured through forgery and deception will be cancelled,” says a health ministry official on the condition of anonymity.  

The official further emphasises that private colleges supporting such unauthorised practices share responsibility if they have granted direct admissions to students; they will be booked as the seats will remain vacant post the cancellation of admissions. Students who have followed appropriate channels need not worry about the repercussions of this crackdown on fraudulent admissions.  

“The registration process on the central website serves to record the presence of aspiring students. After the publication of results, qualifying students must register for counselling, indicating the number of candidates seeking admission to medical colleges. However, some students prefer to bypass this process and seek direct admission, leading to illegal admittance. The right process is to take the exam, qualify, and then register for counselling. Those resorting to shortcuts are at risk of facing consequences,” says the official.

For better counselling administration, the government will select a designated authority for common counselling in the year 2024. The official notice adds that the Government of India will decide and notify the agency and manner of counselling of all undergraduate seats. “No medical institute shall admit any candidate to the Graduate Medical Education course in contravention of these regulations; provided the medical institution granting admission to any student in contravention of these regulations, shall be liable to be fined a total of Rs 1 crore or fee for the entire course duration, whichever is higher, per seat for the first time and for the second time of non-compliance, a penalty of Rs 2 crore or double the amount of fees for the entire course duration whichever is higher per seat, and for any subsequent non-compliance or continued contravention the medical institution shall be barred from granting admissions to any student from the next academic year; provided further that such student admitted in contravention of this mandate shall be discharged from the medical college and double the number of seats shall be reduced for one or more years.”