The university’s registrar recently filed the affidavit which states a medical college can be established only after a nod from the Centre under Section 10(A) of the Indian Medical Council Act, an approval from the Medical Council of India and a valid no-objection certificate from the Delhi government. The college has none of these requirements, the affidavit says.

The Army college had announced in February that it would begin its MBBS course later this year. It flaunted the affiliation with the IP University and said there would be 100 seats in the course. It would be run by the Army Welfare Education Society (AWES).

The matter came to light after a 17-year-old applicant was turned away by the college. His father Dr B B Agarwal said, “We were told only the children of Army personnel were eligible.” He filed a petition seeking to quash the admission notice for MBBS 2008-09 because the admission criteria “violated the reservation permissible by Article 15 of the Constitution”. Agarwal said, “We later found out from the IP University that no affiliation had been extended to the medical college. Its criteria also violates the ordinance of IP University which does not allow 100 per cent reservation for a particular section.”

While the matter got adjourned in April, the petitioners went to the Division bench, which directed to list the matter before the single judge on May 20, “when arguments in the case shall be heard by the learned single judge and the said application be decided on merits”. The matter will now be taken up next Thursday.

The Army on the other hand says it has followed the norms. Colonel Amar Narwat, the AWES’ Director (Systems, Legal and Finance), said, “We have obtained a letter of intent from the Medical Council of India (MCI). This means we can sell the prospectus, can conduct written examinations and counselling. However, admission will be done only after the grant of a ‘letter of permission’ by the MCI. An inspection by MCI is due by the end of this month and we will get the letter by June 15”.