SC to examine increase in minimum age for general duty doctors; issues notice to Karnataka govt

The Supreme Court has decided to examine validity of changes brought in by the Karnataka government increasing the minimum age of recruitment for general duty doctors from 21 to 26 years.

A bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and V Ramasubramanian issued notice to the Karnataka government on a petition filed by Kushal K S and another person.

The court sought a response from the state government by August 20.

The petitioners challenged the Karnataka High Court's order of April 12, 2021 which dismissed their plea against the amendment in rules.

The Karnataka Directorate of Health and Family Welfare Services (Recruitment of Senior Medical Officers/Specialists, General Duty Medical Officers and Dental Health Officers) (Special) Rules, 2019 were published on July 14, 2020.

The petitioners claimed there is no rationale behind enhancement of the age from 21 years to 26 years as it was discriminatory and created artificial restrictions. With the change, the candidates claimed they would be deprived of the opportunity to participate in the selection process.

The change was brought in with the sole intention of extending the benefit to those who would have taken a longer time to complete the MBBS degree. The candidates, who are less meritorious and got admission by payment of capitation fee would be benefited, sacrificing merit, they said.

The petitioners said they have been working from 2018, 2019 and 2020 respectively on contract basis as General Duty Medical Officers and would suffer if change in rules was not struck down.

Before the High Court, the state government defended the change, saying under the Indian educational system, by the time of completion of MBBS/BDS degree, the age of candidate would be 23 years and internship of one year and compulsorily rural training at Government Primary Health Centre or Government Hospitals in rural areas for one year would result in the candidate being aged about 25 years.