MBBS : Supreme Court Allows Repatriated Foreign Medical Students In Penultimate Year To Clear Final Exams In Two Attempts

A division bench of Justices BR Gavai and Vikram Nath was hearing the pleas of medical students who were unable to complete their education abroad owing to intervening circumstances such as COVID-19 travel restrictions in China or Philippines, or the outbreak of hostilities between Russia and Ukraine. Their common plea was to be accommodated in the Indian medical education architecture as an extraordinary, humanitarian measure. The bench had earlier urged the union government, together with the National Medical Commission, to find a solution to address this ‘human problem’. An expert committee was directed to be constituted to examine this issue.

On Tuesday, 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. The recommendations of the committee, which was accepted by the centre, were as follows:

1. 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).
2. 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.
3. 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.

It was also clarified that the recommendations were a one-time, emergency measure and could not be the basis for future decisions. 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 on a number of grounds. Irrespective of the laudable objective, the union government had successfully erected yet another hurdle for the students, the counsel claimed. In particular, they highlighted the difference in the syllabi prescribed by the National Medical Commission and that followed in foreign medical institutions and raised alarm over the insufficiency of a single attempt to clear the examination. Sankaranarayanan exclaimed, “This is not like the All-India Bar Examination that if you fail, you will still have your LLB degree. If these students do not clear the examination, they will be left with nothing.”

The bench refused to be swayed by the impassioned pleas of the counsel, and clearly expressed its unwillingness to interfere with a decision by a committee of experts. At the same time, 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.

"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.

The bench clarified that the order is passed considering the special circumstances of the matter. Besides this, the court also dismissed a plea against a circular retrospectively requiring foreign medical graduates without clinical training to undergo a Compulsory Rotatory Medical Internship (CRMI) for two years instead of one, rejecting Singh’s contention that the retrospective application of the two-year internship mandate was arbitrary. The bench further disposed of a petition by medical students from first to fourth years who had to return home after the Russia-Ukraine war broke out and were attending online classes. Senior advocate Ravi Sikri, appearing for the aggrieved students, argued that there was no provision for such students in the affidavit filed by the government. The bench, however, refused to issue any directions, saying that the petitioners would be at liberty to approach the court after graduating. “This petition is completely premature and only after the petitioners graduate from the respective foreign medical colleges would a question arise as to whether they can appear in the Foreign Medical Graduates Examination.”

This is not the first batch of writ petitions of its kind. In April of last year, a division bench headed by Justice Hemant Gupta had directed the National Medical Commission to frame a scheme to allow students of the batch 2015-20 who were unable to undergo their clinical training to complete it in medical colleges identified by the council, while hearing an appeal against a Madras High Court direction to allow such a student to be provisionally registered. In December, while hearing similar petitions by foreign medical graduates of the batch 2016-21, the top court left it to the centre and the National Medical Council to find a solution, but urged them to look at the problem from a humanitarian angle.

Case

Archita & Ors. v. National Medical Commission & Ors. | Writ Petition (Civil) No. 607 of 2022 and other connected matters

Citation : 2023 LiveLaw (SC) 275

Medical Education - Foreign Medical Graduates - Supreme Court allows repatriated medical students from Ukraine, China etc who are in their penultimate year to clear MBBS exam in two attempt as an extraordinary measure.

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