The Karnataka High Court has ordered the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) to conduct fresh practical examinations for the final-year MBBS students of medical institutes affiliated with the university. The students had petitioned the court for a fresh conduct of the examination, claiming that the practical examinations had been conducted by their respective institutions in violation of the guidelines issued by the RGUHS. The petitioners claimed that while they had cleared the theory examination in their final-year MBBS course, they had failed their practical examinations.
The concerned institutes are Kalaburagi Institute of Medical Sciences, Navodaya Medical College, Raichur, Employees State Insurance Corporation College, MR Medical College, Kalaburagi, Kanachur Institute of Medical Sciences, Father Muller Medical College, Mangaluru, Shivamogga Institute of Medical Sciences, Vydehi Institute of Medical Sciences, Bengaluru.
Justice MI Arun, who passed the order, disposed of the petitions after the counsel for the RGUHS stated that the university is ready to re-conduct the practical examinations for the students of these institutes. This was being done in the interest of the students and without "going into whether the practical examinations already conducted were in accordance with the regulations set by varsity or not," according to a report by TNIE. The petitioners also agreed that they are willing to take the fresh practical examinations in any place as determined by the university.
Last year, in September, a similar case had cropped up and the High Court had asked the RGUHS to conduct a fresh round of practical examinations for eight students of the Kodagu Institute of Medical Sciences, Madikeri. In fact, the university had been called out for a similar case in December 2020, as well, by the petitioners. In light of these instances, the Karnataka High Court in March this year had reprimanded the university for lapses in the conduct of the exams and had warned the university that it should take precautionary measures and ensure that malpractices do not take place causing students to take the examination again and again in the future due to such violations, according to a report by TNIE.
“It is now time that the university wakes up to reality and proceeds to take action against delinquent examiners by blacklisting them or by holding departmental proceedings so that these kind of malpractices do not recur. It is open to the university to devise procedural safeguards to ensure compliance of the directions in this order,” Justice P Krishna Bhat of the Karnataka High Court had told RGUHS in March this year.
