The National Medical Commission (NMC) on Tuesday withdrew approval for the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Institute of Medical Excellence in Jammu and Kashmir’s Reasi district to run its MBBS course for the 2025–26 academic year, weeks after the campus witnessed Hindutva protests triggered by the institute’s first admission list, which included an overwhelming number of Muslim students.
While the withdrawal has been officially attributed to “technical” deficiencies, it comes amid sustained Hindutva pressure following protests against the selection of Muslim candidates.
Of the 50 candidates selected for the institute’s first MBBS batch, 44 were Muslims from Kashmir and six were Hindus from Jammu. Of the six Hindu candidates selected, only three reportedly joined the course.
The protests were led by the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Sangharsh Samiti, with members of the Bharatiya Janata Party, its parent organisation the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal and other Hindutva groups also participating.
Hindu nationalists had demanded that the first admission list be cancelled and that preference be given to Hindu students, as the institute was set up through donations to the Vaishno Devi shrine.
However, the rules do not allow for considering religion as a factor for admissions, as the college is not classified as a minority institute.
In a letter issued on Tuesday, the National Medical Commission said that its Medical Assessment and Rating Board had invited applications in December 2024 for new medical colleges for the 2025–26 academic year.
After “scrutiny of documents and physical inspection,” the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Institute of Medical Excellence was granted the Letter of Permission to run an MBBS course with 50 seats for the academic year.
“Accordingly, admissions were made by the institution,” read the letter.
It went on to say: “Over the past two weeks, the [commission] has received multiple complaints containing serious allegations against the institution…regarding inadequate infrastructure, insufficient clinical material, shortage of qualified full-time teaching faculty and inadequate number of resident doctors.”
After receiving the complaints, the Medical Assessment and Rating Board conducted a surprise physical inspection and found that the “deficiencies” were “gross and substantial in nature,” the commission said.
“Continuation of the institution under such circumstances would have seriously jeopardised the quality of medical education and adversely affected the academic interests of the students,” it added.
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