After a three-month impasse, the Supreme Court has okayed admission of students to a 100-seat medical college in Tripura that was opened as the first case of public-private-partnership (PPP) in health care education, an official said Saturday.

Tripura Health Minister Tapan Chakraborty said a division bench of the apex court, comprising Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice B.N. Agarwal, Friday granted special permission to enroll students in the Tripura Medical College and B.R. Ambedkar teaching hospital.

"The college, set up by the Kerala-based Global Educational Net (GENET) in collaboration with the Tripura government in 2004, was the first public-private partnership (PPP) model in health care education in India," Chakraborty told newsmen.

"After GENET had failed to comply with the terms and conditions of the agreement and conveyed its inability to run the medical college, the Tripura government has rescinded all agreements and lease deeds signed in May this year," he said.

The Supreme Court judgement removed all speculation about the future of the medical college and 200 undergraduate students studying in the college. The college is also a 500-bed hospital.

"An 11-member registered society headed by principal secretary health and family welfare has been formed to run the college and hospital," an official notification said.

After the expiry of schedule time in July to enroll students, the society had urged the Supreme Court to ask the Medical Council of India (MCI) to visit the college and gave permission to register students.

The MCI team visited the college Aug 25-26 and submitted its report to the Supreme Court through the union health ministry. (IANS)