The Supreme Court in the case of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan University and Another v. Union of India and Others had imposed a penalty of Rs 5 Crore on a medical college for playing fraud on it. The bench comprising of Justice L. Nageswara Rao, Justice R. Subhash Reddy and Justice S.A. Bobde also ordered the prosecution of the College Dean S. S Kushwaha under Section 193 of the Indian Penal Code 1860. The court also directed the medical college to pay compensation of Rs 1 Lakh to each student admitted in the college during the academic session of 2017-2018, apart from the refund amount payable to them. The college which has filed the writ petition seems to have manufactured the records to show that they were necessarily being hounded by the Medical Council of India in spite of their compliance with the required standards. The court found that the college indulges in large scale malpractices in showing the compliance of the minimum required standards to obtain permission for admission of students. Referring to the report submitted by the Court appointed committee, the Bench observed that:
“Without delving deep into the details of the Report submitted by the Committee, it is that the college is guilty of practising fraud on this court. The conduct of the College administration in indulging in manipulations and hoodwinking the authorities to project the compliance of the required minimum standards for admission of students does not deserve to be condoned. The impunity with which the college has manufactured records to convince us that they were being unnecessarily hounded by the Medical Council of India in spite of their compliance with the required standards is deprecated. The brazen attempt by the college in taking this court for a ride by placing on record manoeuvred documents to obtain the favourable order is a clear cut act of deceit. The justification given by the college regarding the absence of certain residents has turned out to be concocted story. Had we not initiated an enquiry by the committee of experts, the fraud played by the college on this court would not have come to light.”
The court further refused the apology of the medical college and observed that:
“The college has indulged in large scale malpractices in showing compliance of the minimum required standards to obtain permission for admission of the students. The medical college further tried to mislead the court that is compliant in all respects, to get permission for the admission of the students.”
It is trite that every litigant has to approach the court with clean hands. A litigant who indulges in the suppression of the facts and misrepresentation of records is not entitled to any relief. The conduct of the college, in this case, is to mislead the court for the purpose of getting favourable order is reprehensible and the said medical college deserves to be dealt suitably.
