Supreme Court Pulls Up Madhya Pradesh High Court Over Paramedical Row

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Supreme Court on Thursday pulled up Madhya Pradesh High Court for continuing to hear a case concerning alleged irregularities in recognition and admissions of paramedical colleges, despite a stay by the apex court on an earlier order in the same matter.

On August 1, the Supreme Court had stayed the High Court’s order, allowing admissions to continue and raising questions about how law students could file such a petition without being directly affected.

The top court said that it was troubled by the High Court’s conduct, stating it was inconsistent with the constitutional framework governing the functioning of superior courts.

A bench of Chief Justice BR Gavai and Justice Vinod K Chandran was hearing an appeal filed by Madhya Pradesh Paramedical Council against a July 16 order of the High Court. The order had come in response to a petition filed by Law Students Association (Madhya Pradesh), which had challenged recognition and admissions granted by the council.

The High Court had halted admissions in several paramedical institutions and directed the university to conduct inspections. The controversy arose from allegations that the Paramedical Council had granted retrospective recognition to numerous colleges for academic years 2023–24 and 2024–25, thereby allowing them to admit students before formal recognition was secured.

These issues came to light amid a wider probe into the nursing college scam, in which hundreds of nursing institutions were found unfit but continued to function, often from the same premises as paramedical colleges.

Advocate Vishal Baghel, president of Law Students Association, told Free Press that the Supreme Court had reprimanded MP High Court for entertaining the matter despite its stay.