The decision was taken at the MCI's Executive Council meeting at New Delhi on October 14. However, the MCI is still to forward its recommendation to the central government, which will then communicate its own decision to the Government of Maharashtra.

The Government Medical College, which originally had 100 seats in its first year MBBS course, was allotted another 50 seats by the central government from the academic year 1997-98, following a request from the state government. While the latter had sought 150 additionalseats, to be equally distributed between the three government colleges in Marathwada, the MCI agreed to allocate 50 additional seats to the Government Medical College at Aurangabad on condition that the government would fulfill the staff and infrastructure criteria required to teach a batch of 150 students as prescribed by MCI guidelines.

Consequently, the MCI dispatched its inspector, Dr R D Bansal, to the college before taking a decision on renewal of the additional seats. Bansal, after two inspections, in May and then on September 30, however, found that the college had failed to meet the requirements. During his inspection in May, Dr Bansal had also found several discrepancies and on the basis of his report, the MCI had decided to block its renewal for the 50 additional seats. The MCI, in its report dated October 11, enlisted the staff deficiency as follows:

1) Four professors, one each in pathology, chest medicine, orthopaedics and psychiatry
2) Four readers (associate professors), two each insurgery and radiology
3) Two lecturers, one statistician in the Preventive and Social Medicine Department and one in the surgery department.

Dr Bansal also specifically mentioned that though the Pathology Department fell short of one professor, it had as many as three associate professors and four lecturers, in excess of the requirement.

However, by the time the MCI communicated its decision to the state government, on August 28, admissions had commenced for the second batch of students against the additional quota. Panic buttons were once again pressed at Mantralaya, and the MCI inspector was back at the campus on September 30, for another review. Senior MCI members say the apex body is especially perturbed by the fact that admissions had been conducted for the 50 seats, despite the government being told by both the MCI and the central government that it had refused permission to continue the additional quota.

``If the state government starts flouting norms laid down by an act of Parliament (theIndian Medical Council Act, 1956) what can one expect from private colleges,'' a senior MCI member told Express Newsline. By proceeding with the admissions, the state government has attracted the provisions of Section 10(B) of the IMC Act 1956, he added. On the state government's contention that though some of the departments at the college do not have senior professors but there were sufficient associate professors to compensate, MCI Chairperson, Dr Ketan Desai told Express Newsline from Ahmedabad that the argument does not carry much weight. ``When we insist on a professor, we mean that each department should have a senior person with the requisite experience to lead a team of doctors. Any number of junior doctors cannot compensate for the services of such a senior expert.''

However, pointing to the ``ridiculous extent'' to which the MCI went while derecognising the additional 50 seats, senior officials at the medical college say: ``The MCI should have considered the simple fact that in thecoming days any of these associate professors would have been elevated to the rank of professor.''