Supreme Court allows 2 attempts for Penultimate Foreign Medical Students to clear final MBBS exams without enrolling in India medical colleges
New Delhi: Granting major relief to MBBS students who had to leave their education midway owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war, the Supreme Court, as a one-time measure, has allowed penultimate year students to appear for the final year MBBS examinations without being enrolled in any Indian medical colleges. The top Court also allowed such students to clear the MBBS final exams in two attempts, modifying the Centre's suggestion of allowing them one attempt.
With this, students who returned to India from foreign countries - Ukraine, China, the Philippines, and more, will get to clear the MBBS final exams -- both Part I and Part II exams (theory and practical).
According to the Centre, after clearing these two examinations, students will have to complete two years of compulsory rotatory internship, with the first year being free and the second year being paid, as decided by the National Medical Commission (NMC) for previous cases.
The decision was made by a committee set up by the Centre to address the concerns of these students.
The COVID-19 pandemic and then the war between Ukraine and Russia had put a question mark on the future of several Indian medical students, who are enrolled at foreign medical institutes in China and Ukraine.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that after rescuing the medical students stuck in war-torn Ukraine and COVID-hit China, the Union Health Minister was contemplating the possible options for those students so that they could complete their medical education in India.
Several deliberations we made on the matter back and forth and the students had also filed many petitions before the Supreme Court seeking accommodation into Indian institutes as a one-time measure. The NMC, while saying it couldn't be possible, had given its 'No Objection' to the Academic Mobility Programme for Indian medical students who are enrolled in Ukraine medical institutes provided that other criteria of Screening Test Regulations 2002 are fulfilled.
In January this year, the top court directed the Central Government to come up with a solution and an expert committee chaired by the Directorate General of Health Services which comprises the National Medical Council (NMC) and concerned Central Ministries, was directed to be constituted to examine this issue.
Today, a division bench of Justices BR Gavai and Vikram Nath heard the pleas of medical students who were unable to complete their education abroad. Their common plea was to be accommodated in the Indian medical education architecture as an extraordinary, humanitarian measure.
During the hearing, Additional Solicitor-General for India, Aishwarya Bhati informed the bench that keeping in view this request, a committee formed by the government had taken a decision to accommodate medical graduates in their penultimate year who were compelled to return from Ukraine or China and continue their education remotely.
As per the LiveLaw report, the recommendations of the committee, which were accepted by the centre, were as follows:
Single chance to clear the MBBS Final, both Part I and Part II Examinations (theory and practical) as per existing and guidelines without being enrolled in any of the existing Indian colleges, within a period of one year (students would be eligible to take Part II examination only after Part I is cleared and one year has passed).
The theory examination would be conducted centrally and physically, on the pattern of the Indian MBBS examination while the practical examination would be conducted by designated government medical colleges, assigned the responsibility.
Completion of a two-year-long compulsory rotatory internship after clearing the two examinations, the first year of which would be free and the second year paid as decided by the NMC.
The committee has emphasised that this option will be strictly a one-time option and not become a basis for similar decisions in future and shall be applicable to present matters only, the Centre informed the bench, as quoted by ANI.
Despite the government’s decision to carve out an exception for the aggrieved petitioners, their counsel, including senior advocates S Nagamuthu and Gopal Sankaranarayanan, and advocate Shivam Singh questioned the proposals highlighting the difference in the syllabi prescribed by the NMC and that followed in foreign medical institutions as well as the insufficiency of a single attempt to clear the examination.
The bench refused to entertain the contentions and clearly expressed its unwillingness to interfere with a decision by a committee of experts.
However, the bench acknowledged that mandating that students had only one attempt to take the examination was an area of concern. As such, it agreed to incorporate one minor modification by allowing such students to have not one, but two, attempts to clear the MBBS examination, reports Livelaw.
"We accept the report of the committee, subject to a minor modification in paragraph 5.1. In the said paragraph, the student being offered a single chance to clear MBBS Final, both Part I and Part II Examinations, be read as student being offered single/two chances to clear both Part I and Part II examinations (theory and practical). We clarify that the two chances will be for both Part I and Part II examinations", the bench ordered.
Disposing off of a batch of petitions by repatriated Indian medical students, the Supreme Court bench clarified that the order is passed considering the special circumstances of the matters.
