Vacant SS Seats: Why are doctors penalised for changing field of super-specialisation after admission? Supreme Court to Decide
New Delhi: While considering a petition challenging the rules where medical students cannot change their course after getting admitted to it, the Supreme Court bench has expressed concern over vacant super-speciality seats across the country.
"We are aspiring to be a country with top-notch healthcare and we say that we are short of doctors, but in the same case we have seats going vacant for the doctors," noted the top court bench of Justices BR Gavai and Pankaj Mittal.
The Supreme Court bench made the observation regarding the vacant Super-Speciality seats while considering a batch of students, who had challenged the arbitrary rules which do not allow students to change the course after admission and slapped heavy penalty on doctors.
In this regard, the Apex Court has sought clarity regarding the rules from the Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati. The matter has been listed for further hearing on April 14.
Referring to the issue, ASG informed the top court bench, "Super-specialty medical seats are a valuable and national asset. They should not be permitted to remain vacant."
She further informed the court that in most of the cases, they have already done away with the clause of penalty. However, she stated that she would get instructions regarding the cases raised in the petition.
As per the latest media report by India Today, the senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayan informed the Court that, "If a student wants to change his stream at super-speciality level, he or she should be allowed to do so, but imposing a penalty like this is not correct."
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that the matter of vacant super-speciality seats had been raised by the Federation of Resident Doctors' Association (FORDA).
Referring to the fact that more than 900 super-specialty seats are lying vacant even after the NEET SS Mop Up round, the doctors under the umbrella of the Federation of Resident Doctors' Association (FORDA) had urged the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) to conduct another mop-up round for filling up the vacant seats.
Writing to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), FORDA had pointed out that NEET SS seats are a national asset and should not go vacant. With this, the association had urged the DGHS for conducting another mop-up round "in the larger interest of students and citizens who stand to benefit immensely from having more super-specialty doctors in the country."
Also Read: 900 NEET SS seats still vacant: Doctors demand Another Mop-up round
