Red tape consumed nearly 4,000 MBBS seats in the academic session 2014-15 at a time when India is lagging behind the doctor to population ratio by a wide margin. The country has one doctor for every 1,700 persons against the World Health Organization prescribed standard of one doctor for every 1,000 persons.
The Supreme Court held the government and the Medical Council of India (MCI) guilty for the loss of 3,920 MBBS seats mainly because of lethargic inspection of infrastructure in medical colleges and non-grant of timely permission to colleges to admit students. A bench of Justices said, "The affidavit filed on behalf of Union of India shows that though the number of seats had risen, obviously because of permissions granted for establishment of new colleges, because of disapproval of renewal cases, the resultant effect was net loss in terms of number of seats available for the…
