The supreme court on Tuesday dismissed a number of petitions from repatriated Indian medical
students from Philippines, China, the Ukraine and other countries. The court on Tuesday
informed the penultimate year students are permitted to take the MBBS examination without
being enrolled in any Indian medical collage.
The court then recommended to allow those students for one opportunity and permit them to pass
the MBBS examination in two attempts. The appeals of medical students who were unable to
complete their education abroad due to unforeseen circumstances, such as COVID-19 travel
restrictions in China or the Philippines or the outbreak of hostilities between Russia and Ukraine,
were being heard by a division bench of Justices BR Gavai and Vikram Nath. They all argued for
inclusion in the Indian medical education system as an exceptional, humanitarian gesture. The
bench had earlier directed the union government to address this "human concern" by working
with the National Medical Commission to find a remedy. It was ordered to form an expert
committee to look into this matter.
Aishwarya Bhati, the additional solicitor general for India, informed the court on Tuesday that a
committee established by the government had decided to accommodate medical graduates in
their penultimate year who were compelled to return from China or the Ukraine and continue
their education virtually in light of this request. The following were the committee's
recommendations, which the centre accepted:
1. There will be only one opportunity to pass the MBBS final part 1 and part 2 exams in
according to the current regulations without enrolling their name in any Indian medical
collages. The students will be eligible to take part 2 examination once they pass the part 1
examination.
2. The practical examination will be administrated by the authorized government collages
and the theory examination will be administrated centrally and physically, the following
the format of the Indian MBBS examination.
3. Following passing the two exams, one must do a two-year, mandatory rotational
internship, the first year of which is free and the second year is compensated as
determined by the NMC.
