No More penalty for leaving MBBS, BDS seats midway in Uttar Pradesh

Lucknow: Bringing good news to the MBBS and BDS students in Uttar Pradesh, the State Government has abolished the fine imposed on students who leave their medical education course midway.

Although the Government has done away with the seat-leaving monetary penalty, the provision of debarring such students from taking admission to a medical education course the next year remains in place.

Previously, any undergraduate medical or dental students pursuing their medical education in a government medical college had to pay Rs 1 lakh fine to a government college. In the case of self-financing medical colleges, the candidates had to pay the entire five-year course fee, as per the provision under the "seat-leaving bond". Meanwhile, the amount of penalty for the candidates leaving a postgraduate medical seat in the government sector was Rs 5 lakh.

Also Read: HC Grants Interim Relief to Doctor from Rs 30 Lakh Seat Leaving Bond penalty, MGM Indore told to Return Original Documents

As per the latest media report by Hindustan Times, the State has now scrapped the provision of monetary penalty for the MBBS or BDS students for leaving their seats midway.

Commenting on the matter, the Director General of Medical Education, Kinjal Singh told HT, "Students who leave the MBBS course are themselves under too much pressure as they are leaving a bright career. They do it as a last option and have genuine reasons, including finance. In such a situation, the government thought it is not appropriate to take money from them as fine, hence the financial part of the penalty has been abolished. Uttar Pradesh is the second state after Madhya Pradesh to do so in the country."

The Director General of Medical Education Singh sent a proposal based on the discussions with the National Medical Commission. She said, "The other part of the penalty remains the same where a candidate will be debarred from participating in NEET entrance and counselling in the next year, or the year after they leave a seat."

"We are increasing MBBS seats and the number of the colleges in the state gradually. The focus remains to help more candidates become doctors. Hence, in the interest of students the decision has been taken to abolish the financial penalty mentioned in the seat leaving bond," Singh added.

She further mentioned that "Though not many would leave MBBS or BDS...but the money is not important here. In such a case, we need to have sympathy with the candidate keeping in view the decision they take, putting an entire career at stake."

There are around 9278 MBBS and 2070 BDS seats in more than 60 medical colleges in Uttar Pradesh. More than a dozen medical colleges are expected to join counselling this year as inspections are being done, which will take the number of MBBS seats to more than 10,000 MBBS seats.

Earlier this year, the Apex Medical Regulator NMC had already directed the State/UT governments to reconsider the seat leaving bond conditions for the PG medical students.