FMG Internship Extension from 2 to 3 years in MP: High Court Defers hearing to June 23
Madhya Pradesh High Court
Bhopal: The plea challenging the extension of the Foreign Medical Graduate (FMG) internship period has been deferred by the Madhya Pradesh High Court.
Altogether, nine medical graduates from abroad had challenged the extension of their mandatory internship period from 2 years to 3 years by the State. Even though the matter was listed for hearing on June 19, 2025, it has now been scheduled for further hearing on June 23, 2025.
According to the existing rules, foreign medical graduates must undergo one year of internship in a medical college of the State after completing their medical education abroad. This is necessary to be able to get a permanent registration to practice medicine in India. During the COVID-19 outbreak, the duration of the internship was increased to two years.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that a group of FMGs had filed a plea before the Madhya Pradesh High Court when their internship tenure was extended from 2 to 3 years just before they were going to complete their internship. They claimed that the MP Medical Council increased the duration of their internship by another year when only four months were left to complete the internship. While they were about to complete the internship term in March 2025, they were informed on November 4, 2024, that their internship period would now be for a period of three years.
Previously, while considering the plea, the Madhya Pradesh High Court had sought to know the stand of the State Government and the State Medical Council regarding the matter. During the hearing of the case on May 19, a Division bench of the High Court comprising Justices Sanjeev Sachdeva and Vinay Saraf sought clarification from the National Medical Commission (NMC) regarding the reason behind 2 years of clerkship for the FMGs to compensate for their online training.
The petitioners' counsel had argued before the Court that the NMC circular had been incorrectly been applied to the petitioners and other students who had pursued the medical course in China as the circular was applicable only to those who studied in Ukraine and later it had been clarified to apply the same for the students in Phillippines as well. However, it had no application for the students in China.
Recently, in the order dated May 2, considering the fact that the last date to apply for the NEET PG 2025 examination is 7th May 2025, the Court had allowed them to fill out the NEET PG exam form.
Later, granting interim relief to these medical graduates from abroad, the Madhya Pradesh High Court provisionally allowed them to appear in the National Eligibility-Entrance Test for Postgraduate (NEET-PG) 2025 examination.
