Two dental institutes that requested admission for some students to dental school through the Karnataka High Court have each been fined 1 lakh. According to the court, colleges are not permitted to advocate on behalf of students.
“If the petitioner-students were really deprived of the seats to which they were eligible, they would have approached the Court independently. The colleges cannot step into the shoes of students and file the writ petitions,” the court said. “Precious time of the petitioner-students has been wasted. So also, the petitioners have wasted the Court time for more than half a day, depriving the other genuine litigants,” the division bench of Justice B Veerappa and Justice K S Hemalekha said imposing the cost.
Six students were represented at the HC's request by Sri Venkateshwara Dental College in Bengaluru and KVG Dental College in Sullia. On May 2 and 3, when applicants for BDS (Bachelor of Dental Surgery) programs were required to register and submit payment for the mop-up round of counseling, it was said that the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) website was unavailable. However, KEA argued that the registration period for the mop-up round was open on the internet from March 29 to March 31 and that the deadline was then moved to April 1, 2022.
A total of 1,513 students registered themselves during this time. Six students had petitioned, but only one of them had really registered. The colleges did not contest this fact. According to Sri Venkateshwara Dental College, six of the 40 seats in the college are allegedly vacant. Similar claims were made by KVG Dental College, which stated that four of the college's 100 seats were unoccupied. The bench noted that this was the colleges' real motive.
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