Patna, Sept. 8: Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) is all set to start MBBS classes tomorrow for the newly admitted batch in the institution.

Officials said 96 of the total MBBS seats in the medical college, which was granted permission by Medical Council of India (MCI) to start courses starting the current academic session, have already been filled up.

IGIMS Medical College director-cum-principal Dr Arun Kumar told The Telegraph: “We are all set to start the MBBS course in the institution. Tomorrow, the students will have the induction session and will take the Hippocratic oath before starting their course as medical students. They will later be taken on a round of the hospital to get acquainted with the place. Formal classes will start from Monday.”

The institution now aims to fill the four vacant seats out of a total of 100 through third round of counselling of Bihar Combined Entrance Competitive Examination (BCECE) board by the end-September.

According to the Supreme Court guidelines, every medical college has to admit the first batch of students by August 31 every year, while a few seats vacated because of emergency situations can be filled up by the next month according to MCI rules.

The institution has been in the news for the past several weeks after controversy arose over the mode of admission to the newly conceptualised medical college.

The institution had first planned to conduct an all India-level entrance examination and had even invited applications for the same but later retreated on its own stand and decided to take admission through counselling of students in BCECE merit list.

Following this a dissenting candidate had even filed a petition in the high court pleading the admissions in the IGIMS be stayed as the move had dashed the dreams of thousands of students across the country.

The high court had first stayed the admissions but later vacated it, paving way for the admission process to begin as decided by the board of governors of IGIMS.

Meanwhile, the institution has also advertised to fill four vacancies in the faculty.

“Four posts are yet to be filled in the department of basic sciences like anatomy and physiology. The institution hopes to recruit qualified medical teachers against the vacancies within the next two weeks,” Kumar said.

MCI has granted the institution the permission to run the medical college for one year at the end of which it will inspect IGIMS again.

It will check whether the institution has been following MCI guidelines and all the undertakings submitted at the time of application are complied with.

According to sources, MCI, the supreme body governing conduct of medical colleges in the country will grant permanent status to IGIMS as a medical college only if it fulfils all the eligibility criteria for four consecutive years.