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

Bhopal: Granting interim relief to a doctor, the Principal bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court in Jabalpur recently asked MGM Medical College, Indore, to return original documents to her without Rs 30 lakh as seat-leaving bond penalty.

As per the Free Press Journal report, the HC bench has issued notice to all the concerned authorities, asking them to file reply.

The doctor in question was allotted a seat in MD radiotherapy at MGM Medical College Indore back in 2022. At that time, she had submitted all the original documents to the dean of the college.

Since 2021, the petitioner doctor has been working as a medical officer at a community health centre in Narsinghpur. Therefore, as per the existing rules, the doctor could only be allowed to pursue MD Radiotherapy course after receiving a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Chief Medical Officer Narsinghpur and also from the Commissioner of Public Health and Family Welfare, Bhopal.

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As per the latest media report by Free Press Journal, since her request for getting an NOC to pursue an MD at MGM Indore was rejected by the authorities, the doctor could not pursue her postgraduation at the medical college. Thereafter, when she visited the institute to collect her original documents, the authorities demanded Rs 30 lakh as a seat-leaving bond.

Challenging this, the doctor has now approached the Madhya Pradesh High Court. Her counsel, Advocate Aditya Sanghi informed FPJ, "Division bench headed by Justice Sushrurt Arvind Dharmadhikari granted interim relief to the petitioner and directed MGM Medical College to return her original documents without requiring her to deposit Rs 30 lakh."

"It's the first case wherein petitioner has challenged the pre-PG rules of seat-leaving bond of Rs 30 lakh. It will benefit thousands of students in medical colleges in MP," advocate Sanghi further added.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that 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.

The Anti-Ragging Committee of NMC had recommended the State/UT to review the seat-leaving policy in medical colleges in an attempt to address the mental health concerns of PG medical students. As an alternative, NMC had recommended that the States may consider debarring the students for admission in their States for the next one year.

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