New Delhi: The Central government has in an affidavit to the Supreme Court stated that medical students, who have returned from Ukraine cannot be transferred to Indian universities.
“There is no legal provision to do so and till now not a single student has been transferred here from foreign universities,” stated the affidavit filed by the Union ministry of health and family welfare.
A bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and Sudhanshu Dhulia is likely to hear the bunch of petitions filed by Indian students of medical colleges in Ukraine, who returned from the war zone, seeking permission to complete medical education here.
In response to the petition filed by the medical students, the Central government has said that there is no such law that the returned students can be given an opportunity to continue their further studies in the medical colleges here. It also said that shifting those students to colleges here may harm the standards of medical education in the country.
In the affidavit submitted by the ministry, it has been said that the petitions seeking to transfer of the returned Indian students to the medical colleges here does not qualify the provisions of the Indian Medical Council Act- 1956, and the National Medical Commission Act. -2019 or the rules made thereunder, but will seriously obstruct the system of education.
“So far no foreign medical students have been allowed to be admitted by the National Medical Council (MNC) in any Indian Medical Institute/University,” the apex court said.
The Center says that the victim petitioner had gone abroad for two reasons. First- because of poor qualifying in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) and second- because of the low economic burden on medical education abroad.
The government says, “If these students with poor merit are allowed admission in the same way in leading medical colleges of India, then lawsuits can be filed on behalf of the aspiring candidates, who are denied admission in these colleges.”
The government also says that if these petitioner students are allotted private medical colleges in India on the basis of their financial capability, they may not be able to afford the fees of the institute concerned once again.
