No provisional certificate to foreign medical students affected by Covid-19 pandemic: SC

"We find that the NMC is not bound to grant provisional registration to the student who has not completed the entire duration of the course from the foreign institute," SC noted

The Supreme Court on Friday said the Covid-19 pandemic has undoubtedly thrown new challenges to the entire world, including the Indian medical students from foreign institutes, but granting them provisional registration to complete internships without having undergone clinical training would be compromising with the health of the citizens of any country and the health infrastructure at large.

A bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and V Ramasubramaian directed the National Medical Commission (NMC) to frame a scheme for foreign-educated students within two months for undergoing clinical training in India's medical colleges as their studies got affected due to the pandemic. It said services of young students, who had taken admission to foreign institutes should be utilised to augment health services in the country.

Senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for the NMC, told that the pandemic and the crisis in Ukraine, affected by war, have thrown new challenges and it would take a holistic view as to how to safeguard the interests of the Indian students who were studying abroad and at the same time, not compromising with the quality of medical education expected from them in India.

Acting on a plea by the NMC, the top court disagreed with the judgement made by the Madras High Court which stated that instead of three months of clinical training in China, two months training would be sufficient for provisional registration apart from the 12 months of internship.

"The courts are not expert in deciding an academic curriculum or the requirement of the clinical training which may be required to be satisfied by the students," the bench added.

The court held that the decision of the NMC not to grant the provisional certificate to Pooja Thandu Naresh and others cannot be said to be arbitrary as, without practical training, there cannot be any doctor who is expected to take care of the citizens of the country.

"We find that the NMC is not bound to grant provisional registration to the student who has not completed the entire duration of the course from the foreign institute including the clinical training," the bench said.

The court here dealt with the question of whether the degree granted by the foreign Institute even in respect of clinical training is binding on the NMC and the student has to be provisionally registered.

Referring to the eligibility regulations, the bench said, these are to ensure that a student meets the minimum condition as per the Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 1997, but after completing the curriculum, a candidate has to qualify the screening test, provided the entire duration of the course has been completed at the same institute located abroad.

The bench pointed out the courses in foreign countries are designed in such a way to attract students, while compromising the interests of the Indian nationals and the health infrastructure here.