Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has stayed the National Medical Commission’s (NMC) order denying approval for admissions to the first-year MBBS course at Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College (JNMC), Belagavi, for the academic year 2025–26.
The NMC had withheld permission citing bribery allegations linked to the college’s earlier seat enhancement.
HC order restores 200 seats
A Division Bench of Justice S.R. Krishna Kumar and Justice C.M. Poonacha, ruling on a petition filed by KLE Academy of Higher Education and Research (KAHER), directed that JNMC’s 200 MBBS seats be restored and included in the ongoing undergraduate counselling.
The Bench relied on the Supreme Court’s precedent in NMC vs. Shyamlal Chandrashekhar Medical College and SPNM Hospital, Khagaria (Bihar), where admissions for 2025–26 were allowed despite a pending CBI case involving bribery allegations. The apex court had ruled that mere registration of an FIR cannot justify denial of admissions if infrastructure and faculty norms are satisfied.
Deficiencies rectified
The HC observed that earlier deficiencies flagged at JNMC had since been rectified. It said admissions could not be blocked solely on the basis of a pending CBI FIR, while clarifying that the investigation would continue.
Accordingly, the court directed the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) to include 188 seats in the national counselling pool and the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) to allot the remaining 12 seats under state quota.