Health Bulletin 31/May/2025

While considering the pleas challenging the National Board of Examination's (NBE) decision of holding the NEET PG 2025 exam in double shifts, the Supreme Court today held that holding the exam in two shifts would lead to arbitrariness and cannot give a level playing field to the candidates.

With this observation, the bench directed the NBE to make arrangements to hold the exam in a single shift, Live Law has reported. The bench noted that since the exam is scheduled for the 15th of June 2025, there is still more than 2 weeks of time for the examining body to identify the centres to hold the examination and one shift.

Observing that 'a man becomes a beast' after drinking, the Supreme Court has refused to grant relief to a cardiologist convicted by a trial court for sexually assaulting his seven-year-old daughter.

Based on the testimony of the survivor and other evidence, the trial court convicted the doctor, and consequently, the doctor approached the Supreme Court bench seeking suspension of sentence.

However, the Apex Court bench comprising Justices B.V. Nagarathna and Satish Chandra Sharma said that the doctor has been convicted by a trial court, and it was not inclined to grant any relief.

Noting that the offence was committed when the accused was under the influence of alcohol, the bench observed orally, "See, the kind of things he has done to the child. You do not deserve any relief. The child has made statements against your client. He is a perverse guy, not entitled to any suspension. They were drunk."

In a major relief to the medical students in Karnataka, the Governor of the State, Thaawarchand Gehlot, recently approved the Karnataka Compulsory Service by Candidates completed Medical Courses (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025, which will allow them to pursue postgraduate medical education without completing the bond service obligation first.

Under this amendment, the Government will relax the rule requiring medical graduates to mandatorily serve in rural areas after their graduation.

The ordinance stated that the vacancies in the rural areas of Karnataka will be filled on priority basis and if the number of candidates are more than the number of vacancies in rural areas, then the vacancies in urban areas may be filled by posting the candidates with a clause making it mandatory for them to render one-year compulsory service.

Additionally, the victims and their parents have voiced dissatisfaction with how the case has been handled. They alleged that crucial evidence was ignored in the anti-ragging complaint report, resulting in no serious action being taken against the accused, and as a result, they believe that justice has not been fully served.

Medical Dialogues team had previously reported that BJ Medical College suspended three second-year postgraduate students from the Orthopaedics Department and evicted them from the hostel for allegedly ragging juniors. The action followed a formal complaint received by the college on Monday, alleging that the second-year PG students had subjected four juniors to mental and physical harassment, including the use of threatening language and and even hot waters were allegedly poured on some of them.