The Supreme Court today fined three private medical colleges Tk 1 crore each for admitting candidates, who did not meet requirements set by the health ministry, in admission tests.

The medical colleges are: Mainamoti Medical College, BGC Trust Medical College and Southern Medical College.   

The apex court ordered the colleges to give half of the fine to Chittagong University (CU), which controls their professional examinations, and to deposit the rest in the name of two charitable organisations by two weeks.

Asking CU to keep the money as a fixed deposit to use its interest as stipend for students, the SC also ordered it to allow the students to sit for their first professional examinations, Advocate AM Aminuddin, a lawyer for candidates, told The Daily Star.

A four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha passed the order following a leave-to-appeal petition filed by CU challenging a High Court order that asked the CU authorities to give registration and admit cards to the students after their petition.

The health ministry in 2014 issued a circular imposing a condition that the students, who will score minimum 120 number including 40 in written examination out of total 200 in the admission tests, can be admitted into MBBS and BDS for 2014-2015 academic year.

The CU authorities refused to give registration and admit cards to the students of the three private medical colleges for appearing in their first professional examinations as they could not fulfill the requirements.

Following a writ petition filed by the students, the HC earlier this year ordered CU authorities to give registration and admit cards to them.

The CU authorities then filed a leave-to-appeal petition with the SC against the HC order.