NMC withdraws permission for Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Medical College; students to be shifted to other institutes

STATE TIMES NEWS

NEW DELHI: The National Medical Commission’s Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB) has withdrawn the letter of permission granted to the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Institute of Medical Excellence in Jammu and Kashmir’s Reasi for non-compliance with minimum standards.
An order issued by the MARB on Tuesday said all students admitted to the college during the counselling for the academic year 2025-26 shall be accommodated in other medical institutions in Jammu and Kashmir as supernumerary seats by the competent authority of the Union Territory administration.
This means no admitted student will lose an MBBS seat due to the withdrawal decision. Instead, they will be adjusted in other recognised medical colleges in Jammu and Kashmir over and above their regular sanctioned intake.
The implementation of this relocation will rest with the Union Territory’s designated health and counselling authorities, who have been formally informed of the decision through copies of the order.
According to the order, the non-compliance came to light during a surprise inspection.
The NMC’s decision is effective immediately.
The institute had applied under the NMC’s public notices issued on December 5, 2024, and December 19, 2024, for establishing a new medical college with an intake of 50 MBBS seats for the academic year 2025-26.
After processing the application, the MARB granted a letter of permission on September 8, 2025, to start the MBBS course.
The letter of permission was subject to several conditions, including maintaining essential standards, allowing surprise inspections, providing accurate information and rectifying deficiencies before renewal, the order said.
The MARB had reserved the right to withdraw or cancel the permission in case of misrepresentation, non-compliance or failure to meet regulatory norms.
After the issuance of the letter of permission, the commission received multiple complaints alleging inadequate infrastructure, clinical material and qualified full-time teaching faculty and resident doctors at the college.
The complaints also pointed to an inadequate inpatient and outpatient load and poor bed-occupancy statistics, among other issues.
Acting under section 28(7) of the National Medical Commission Act, 2019, which empowers the MARB to conduct surprise evaluations of medical institutions without a prior notice, a team of assessors carried out an inspection at the college on January 2, 2026.
This inspection formed the basis of the subsequent adverse findings.
The assessment report highlighted extensive deficiencies in faculty strength, clinical material and infrastructure at the institute.
These included a 39-per cent deficiency in teaching faculty and a 65-per cent deficiency in tutors, demonstrators and senior residents against the prescribed requirement.
The patient load and clinical services were also found to be far below norms, with OPD attendance of 182 at 1 pm against the required 400 and bed occupancy at 45 per cent against the required 80 per cent.
Intensive care units reportedly had only about 50 per cent average bed occupancy, while the average number of deliveries was approximately 25 per month, which the MARB termed “grossly deficient”.
Further, student practical laboratories in some departments and the research laboratory were not available.
Lecture theatres did not conform to the minimum standard requirements, the library had only 744 books against a requirement of 1,500 and just two journals against the 15 required.
The report also recorded the absence of an ART centre and facilities for the management of MDR-TB, as well as gross infrastructure deficiencies in some departments, including the lack of separate male and female wards.
Only two operation theatres were functional against the requirement of five, there was no minor OT in the OPD area and the equipment for para-clinical subjects was deemed inadequate.
The MARB cited Chapter V (Sanction and Penalty), Regulation 29 of the “Establishment of Medical Institutions, Assessment and Rating Regulations, 2023”, which treats non-compliance by a medical college as an offence liable to be penalised.
The deficiencies enumerated in the inspection report were categorised as non-compliance under these regulations.
After considering the assessment, the commission concluded that the institute had failed to meet the minimum standard requirements specified in the UGMSR-2023 for establishing and running a medical college.
Consequently, with the approval of the NMC chairman, the MARB decided to withdraw the letter of permission with immediate effect.
In addition to withdrawing the letter of permission, the MARB has decided to invoke the performance bank guarantee furnished by the college, in accordance with the terms of the original permission. This step underscores the financial and regulatory consequences of non-compliance for the institution.