Supreme Court issues notice to NMC, KUHS over internship stipend disparity

New Delhi: In the matter of stipend disparity, the Supreme Court has sought responses from the National Medical Commission (NMC), Kerala University of Health Sciences and others.

According to PTI report, the top court was hearing a plea filed by 154 medicos from Kerala on parity of payment of stipend to doctors from self-financing institutions and government hospitals in the state.

In their petition filed through advocate Tanvi Dubey, the doctors challenged the "unjust and arbitrary" act of holding back the stipend and failure to remit the full amount as sanctioned to the petitioners who are serving compulsory internships at various medical colleges and hospitals in Kerala.

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The petition contended that the doctors from the self-financing and government institutions perform the same kind of duty; however, there is no parity in payment of stipend. The Kerala University of Health Sciences has also issued a circular stating that parity in stipend should be provided between government hospitals and self-financing hospitals, the plea said.

According to the plea, as opposed to a statutory stipend of Rs 27,300, the colleges are paying amounts ranging from Rs 8,000 to Rs 17,000. "Petitioners need to take care of their accommodation, food and other expenses while doing the one-year internship. It is most humbly submitted that without the sanctioned stipend, it is impossible for the petitioners to bear their basic expenses," the plea said, quotes PTI

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Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that The Supreme Court of India ordered the Jharkhand government and Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences, Ranchi, to pay the pending stipend to Foreign Medical Graduates (FMGs) who had completed their internship earlier but were not given the same benefit as their juniors.

Noting that foreign medical graduates are liable to get a stipend at par with Indian medical graduates, the division bench of Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Prasanna B. Varale ordered the stipend to be paid within 2 weeks that time.

The bench said, "The petitioners having completed their internship prior to the petitioners in WP No.232/2025, would stand on the same footing as that of writ petitioners in WP No.232/2025. As such, they cannot be discriminated and paid less stipend than the writ petitioners in WP No.232/2025 having been paid."