Temporary service counts for super-speciality admissions: Madras HC relief to regularised doctors
Madras High Court
Chennai: The Madras High Court recently held that doctors who were first appointed temporarily in regular posts and later regularised are entitled to count their entire service period for admission under the in-service quota for super-speciality medical courses.
Passing the order, Justice M Dhandapani directed the State Selection Committee to consider such doctors as eligible in-service candidates by counting even their temporary service as qualifying service.
The direction came while hearing a plea filed by Dr G Arulvel. He was appointed as an assistant surgeon in 2021 on a temporary basis in a regular sanctioned post and was later regularised on March 6, 2026, after clearing the special qualifying examination for regularisation.
As per latest TNIE media report, the petitioner approached the court seeking the issuance of directions to consider his application for the super-specialty course for the 2025-26 academic year as an in-service candidate in the Round-II counselling.
Allowing his plea, the Court said,
"There shall be a direction to the respondents to consider the application of the petitioner and the other similarly placed persons for admission to super-specialty courses for 2025-26 as in-service candidates by considering the period of service rendered by them in the temporary post, which is borne out of the cadre in the time scale of pay, as qualifying service for the purpose of fulfilment of the conditions laid down under clause 7 and 8 of the prospectus."
The court also extended relief to other similarly placed doctors. It directed the authorities to accept applications from all eligible temporary assistant surgeons and process their applications for selection to the super-specialty courses, which are yet to be filled under the in-service quota and admit them on the basis of their inter se merit in the relevant courses for 2025-26.
