Accommodation of Ukraine Returned Medicos Discussed in Supreme Court, Next Hearing on December 8
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday considered the pleas filed by Ukraine returned medical students seeking to be accommodated in the Indian medical education system.
After discussing the matter including the issue of internship, the top court bench comprising Justices BR Gavai and Vikram Nath has listed the matter for further hearing on December 08, 2022.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that previously the Central Government had filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court stating that Indian medical students who returned from Ukraine cannot be accommodated in Indian universities as there is no provision in the National Medical Commission Act allowing it.
In its affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, the Union Ministry of Health had pointed out it had already introduced some "proactive measures to assist the returnee students".
On September 16, the top court suggested that the Central government could develop a web portal providing details of foreign universities for the Ukraine-returned students to complete their studies, as per the government's academic mobility programme.
Consequently, on November 11, the Supreme Court had asked the Centre to file an affidavit to inform it about the number of medical students who were pursuing their studies in Ukraine who have been accommodated in other countries.
Submitting an affidavit, the Central Government recently informed the Supreme Court that out of a total 15,783 Indian students who had enrolled in Ukrainian medical universities, 14,973 are undergoing online classes, which have been conducted by the universities.
The affidavit further stated that applications of 382 students were rejected by Ukrainian Universities or the receiving partner university because of various reasons including non-payment of fee, poor academic record, or non-availability of free seats. Apart from this, the Central Government had also reiterated its inability to accommodated the Ukraine returned medicos in the Indian System.
As per the latest media report by Edex Live, during the hearing of the case yesterday, one of the counsels appearing for the petitioners urged that the least that could currently be done was to provide clinical accommodations to the students of fourth, fifth and sixth-year batches as a "one-time measure". In this regard, the counsel for the petitioners also referred to a few examples of vacancies in Indian medical institutes from official records. It was stated that considering the fact that the students continued their classes online, they should be allowed practical and clinical training.
On the other hand, Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati contended that it was not possible to provide accommodation to the Ukraine returned medical students because the Apex medical education regulatory body, National Medical Commission had strict mandates against this.
Mentioning that NMC had already allowed the medicos from Ukraine to opt for the academic mobility programme, ASG Bhati further submitted, "We cannot disrupt the medical education in India."
Meanwhile, the counsel appearing for the State Medical Council submitted, "They have not qualified NEET. They couldn't get admission here so they went abroad. We cannot let our patients be handled by them. Other countries have allowed them to come and practice there."
At this outset, another counsel appearing for the petitioners referred ton the fact that States like Tamil Nadu and Kerala had not even allowed the final-year Ukraine returned medical students to complete their internships, while all the other states had given their nod for the same. The counsel submitted that the 2016-2021 batch particularly suffered due to this.
Taking note of this, the top court bench queried the State Medical Council why this situation was created if the students had cleared the FMGE (Foreign Medical Graduate Examination). Further the bench slammed the Council for taking no action even after asking for two months' time from the court for framing guidelines for the students.
Responding to this, the counsel replied that allowing the students for pursuing internships would result in "playing with human lives" as the students only "claim" to have passed the FMGE.
In this regard, the counsel for the petitioners argued that the 2015-2020 batch was allowed while the permission was not given for the next batch. Responding to this, the State Council was quoted stating, "This is never-ending. After three months another batch will stand here asking for allowance. We have to stop them."
However, the bench pointed out that in Assam, the State Council had mentioned that qualified people without MBBS degrees could be hired for serving in the rural areas. Further the bench asked the counsel why the Ukraine-returned medicos could not be recruited likewise and observed, "Why are they not being provided provisional registration?"
"We want qualified people, not half-qualified people," replied the counsel.
Another counsel for a petitioner from Kerala contended that it would be a one-time measure and there were only a limited number of students belonging to the 2021 batch.
At this outset, the bench observed, "Why doesn't the union of India take a call on this? It is a humanitarian issue."
In response, the ASG Bhati replied that she did not have required information on the issue of internship and submitted that she would come back after taking instructions.
Granting the same, the presiding Justices consulted among themselves and decided that the matter of internship would be heard separately. The bench has listed the matter for further hearing on December 8, 2022.
Also Read: Cannot admit medical undergrads from Ukraine in Indian medical colleges: Govt to SC
