- (1.) I.A. Nos.7 and 8 of 2016, filed on behalf of the respondent Nos.18, 30 and 31 in the special leave petitions, for appropriate orders, are disposed of.
(2.) This Court on 12th January, 2016, after hearing the learned counsel for the parties and referring to the earlier order dated 8th January, 2016, issued series of directions. In pursuance of the directions, the students who were prosecuting their studies in Sardar Rajas Medical College, Hospital and Research Centre, have been transferred and admitted in three private medical colleges, namely, Hi-tech Medical Collegege and Hospital, Bhubaneswar, KIMS, Bhubaneswar and IMS & Sum Hospital. It was also directed that the State Government shall see to it that each college as mentioned herein-above, gets at least forty-one students as that will be in proportion to the students who have been transferred. Additionally, it was directed that the private colleges shall impart appropriate education so that there is no inadequacy in the said sphere.
(3.) On that day, many an issue were left open to be debated afterwards. One such issue was liability of the Selvam Educational Trust as it was prima facie felt by the Court that the said Trust should compensate the students as they were compelled to travel from the sphere of certainty of the Institution to the realm of uncertainty. An argument has been advanced on behalf of the Trust by Mr. V. Giri, learned senior counsel that the liability of the Trust can only be fixed if its cavil with the Medical Council of India is put to rest. To elucidate, if eventually the Court comes to the conclusion that there was no justification for closure of the college and the hospital, the said Trust would not be liable. We intend to make it absolutely clear that if the Trust has any kind of cavil with the Medical Council of India, that will be determined in a different litigation, if the Trust thinks it appropriate to enter into the said arena. That should not be the subject matter of the present case; and that cannot be a condition precedent for the purpose of granting compensation to the students. If in the ultimate eventuality, the Trust would be in a position to establish in a court of law and advisedly in a petition preferred under Article 32 of the Constitution, that the action taken by the Medical Council of India was totally unwarranted and uncalled for, the Medical Council of India may be given appropriate directions, but the students who are prosecuting their studies after being transferred to different colleges should not suffer due to the lis in embryo between the Trust and the Medical Council of India.;