60 Medical Colleges Not Paying Stipend to Medicos- NMC response to RTI

New Delhi: Altogether 33 Government and 27 private medical colleges are not paying any stipends to their MBBS interns, postgraduate resident doctors, and senior doctors, revealed the file notings of the National Medical Commission (NMC), obtained through a Right to Information (RTI) application.

The RTI application was filed by Kerala-based Health Activist Dr. KV Babu, who had sought copies of the legal opinion availed by NMC regarding action against Medical Colleges based on the show cause notice dated 28.11.2024 issued to 198 medical colleges. He had also sought the file noting along with the copies of affidavits filed in the Supreme Court this year.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that last year in November, NMC slapped show-cause notices on 198 medical institutes for not complying with the Commission's directives to uphold the details of the stipend paid to the interns and resident doctors. Releasing a list of these medical colleges on 28.11.2024, NMC specified that the failure of those colleges to submit the information regarding stipends was "considered seriously". NMC asked the medical colleges to furnish the data after the Supreme Court took cognisance of the issue of non payment of stipend to medical colleges.

As per the file noting dated 11.07.2024, obtained through the RTI Act, only 290 government and 265 private medical colleges including Deemed to be Universities furnished their data for 2023-2024 till 11.07.2024.

Also Read: Action Against 198 medical colleges over non-payment of Stipend for Medicos? NMC says Matter sub-judice

The remaining 198 colleges (115 government and 83 private colleges) including Deemed to be Universties out of a total of 753 colleges did not furnish their data. "It is also observed that some colleges have furnished data for FY 2024-2025 (i.e. April 2024) alone which are not included in the list of colleges who have furnished relevant data," stated the noting.

"Amongst the 290 Govt Colleges, which submitted their returns data w.r.t. stipend being given/not given, it appears that 257 number of Govt Medical Colleges have given stipend to their interns/residents/Sr residents and 33 number of Govt Medical Colleges have not given stipend to their interns/residents/sr residents," it added.

"Similarly, Amongst the 265 Private Medical Colleges, which submitted their returns data w.r.t. stipend being given/not given, it appears that 238 number of private Medical Colleges have given stipend to their interns/residents/sr residents and 27 number of Private Medical Colleges have not given stipend to their interns/residents/sr residents," it further mentioned.

The noting also mentioned that since the inputs had to be furnished to the Apex Court, appropriate action needed to be taken against the defaulting medical colleges who had not furnished the data. In the noting, NMC had also mentioned that it may issue all the defaulting colleges show cause notice seeking to know why suitable action should not be taken against them. 

However, the Commission has not taken any action against the defaulting colleges. When Dr. Babu filed another RTI seeking the details of action taken by the Boards/NMC against medical colleges for non-compliance under Maintenance of Standards of Medical Education Regulations, 2023, along with the details of action taken for irregularities in the payment of stipends to interns/PGs during this period, NMC argued that the States/UTs had the responsibility to take action, not NMC.

"It is informed that NMC is the regulatory body which issues guidelines, regulations from time to time. The implementation of the guidelines /instruction/advisory is solely at the discretion of the concerned state authorities under which the medical college/institute is located," the Commission informed in the RTI reply dated 18.02.2025.

Commenting on the matter, Dr. Babu told Medical Dialogues, "Though the NMC issued show cause notice to 198 medical colleges for not submitting the details of stipend paid to interns & resident doctors, they are evasive regarding the action taken against stipend non-paying medical colleges, stating that it is the discretion of state authorities!"

"Though the regulations gazetted by the NMC in September 2023 regarding action that can be taken by the NMC clearly states that monetary penalties upto one crore can be imposed for non-compliance of regulations. NMC can even withhold accreditation for a period of five years! I had been repeatedly saying that, the NMC is solely responsible for non-compliance of regulations by medical colleges regarding stipend for interns & resident doctors," he added.

Earlier, on the question about the status of action taken against the 198 medical colleges, NMC recently informed on 11.02.2025, while responding to a RTI application, that the concerned States/UTs where those medical institutes are located must bear the responsibility.

The list of medical colleges, which were issued show-cause, included renowned institutes such as Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC), New Delhi, Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Medical Sciences and Dr. RML Hospital, New Delhi, Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar Medical College, Rohini, ESIC run medical colleges, Raipur Institute of Medical Sciences RIMS, GMERS medical colleges, Maharishi Markandeshwar Medical College & Hospital, DY Patil medical college, MGM Vashi and many more.

Previously also, Dr. Babu had sought to know what action was taken by the Commission against these colleges. However, earlier, NMC did not provide any information stating that the matter was still sub-judice.

Even though NMC has reiterated that the responsibility of implementing the guidelines lies with the concerned State/UT where the medical institute is located, Dr. Babu pointed out that as per PGMER 2023, the post-graduate students undergoing post-graduate Degree/Diploma/Super-speciality courses in all the institutions shall be paid a stipend at par with the stipend being paid to the post-graduate students of State Government medical institutions/Central Government medical institutions, in the State/Union Territory where the institution is located.

Regarding the issue of stipend for the MBBS interns, the NMC CRMI Regulations, 2021 states that the interns shall be paid a stipend as fixed by the appropriate authority applicable to the institution/ University or State.

Meanwhile, NMC in the Maintenance of Standards of Medical Education Regulations, 2023 has specified what penalties may be imposed on the institute for violation of its rules. As per these regulations, NMC can take action against a medical institute for violation of any of the regulations and such penalties could include withholding and withdrawal of accreditation for five academic years and a penalty of Rs 1 crore.

Also Read: What Action Taken Against Medical Colleges over Non-Payment of Stipend? Here's What NMC says