The present plea, filed through advocate Gopal Singh, raised grievance with a public notice dated July 28, 2022 specifying that foreign medical graduates who graduated on or before June 30 that year have to undergo a two-year Compulsory Rotating Medical Internship (CRMI) to make up for any incomplete clinical training abroad.
The petitioners highlighted that while they had completed their MBBS education from China in 2020, the CRMI rule is now being made applicable to them as well, leading to various State Medical Councils revoking certificates needed for their medical practice.
The NMC’s actions are contrary to the principles of equity and fair play as well as the doctrine of legitimate expectations, it was stressed. The plea said that while the notice reads prospectively, it is being applied retrospectively.
The rules of the game were changed after the process began, the petitioners argued.
“Fundamental rights of the petitioners under Article 14, 19 and 21 are being violated due to the manifestly arbitrary actions of the respondents as additional practical obligations are being imposed on a retrospective basis … [the notice] directly disentitles qualified doctors from joining the mainstream and indirectly creates a sub-optimal situation vis-à-vis the already strained national medical infrastructure”, the petition stated.
The plea further contended that the petitioners are not on the same plane as other foreign medical graduates seeking relaxations on account of the closure of universities in 2020-2021, but rather at a ‘vastly superior pedestal‘.
It was also submitted that the petitioners have completed most of their course offline and even enrolled as practitioners during the COVID pandemic. The present writ petitioners have completed most of their course offline and have undergone only a minimal number of hours of online training due to COVID disruptions, the plea added.
” … most of these petitioners have performed their task beyond the call of duty including but not limited to serving internship during the second and third wave of Covid. They have doubled up as first line of medical defence and first responders during a time when the National medical infrastructure was under severe strain,” the petition further stated.
Source: Barandbench
