A setback for the thousands of Indian undergraduate medical students who were studying in Ukraine but were forced to return due to the conflict with Russia, the Centre informed the Supreme Court on Thursday that there are no legal provisions in place to allow them to be accommodated in local medical colleges.
The National Medical Commission (NMC) has not yet approved the transfer or housing of any foreign medical students at any Indian medical institutes or universities, the Center claimed in an affidavit.
In a group of petitions submitted by undergraduate medical students in their first through fourth years at various overseas medical colleges and institutions, who are principally seeking transfer to medical colleges in India in their respective semesters, the government filed its response.
The government stated that there are no provisions under the Indian Medical Council Act of 1956 or the National Medical Commission Act of 2019 as well as the Regulations to accept or transfer medical students from any foreign medical institutes/colleges to Indian medical colleges.
However, it stated that in order to help and support these returning students who were unable to complete their MBBS programmes in Ukraine, NMC in consultation with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). It has issued a Public Notice dated September 6, 2022, indicating that NMC would accept completion of their remaining programmes abroad (with the approval of parent university/Institution in Ukraine).
The government stated that the parent institutions in Ukraine are expected to award the certificate, completion, or degree after they have finished their remaining courses.
According to the students’ claims, it is unclear whether Indian universities fall under the category of “Universities in different countries globally” even though the public notice from September 6 states that there is no opposition to the academic mobility programme, which involves temporarily relocating the affected foreign students in different foreign countries around the world.
According to the government, these students have alleged that their respective Ukrainian Medical Universities turned them down when they applied under the academic mobility programme for academic mobility in the first semester of the academic year 2022–2023.
“The aforementioned affidavit (of the student) is respectfully submitted to be utterly baseless and false. It is argued that the aforementioned academic mobility programme was only established for students who were unable to finish their education owing to the warlike conditions in Ukraine “the Center reported.
It further stated that the word “global mobility” in the public notice dated September 6 should not be taken to suggest housing these students in Indian colleges or universities because current Indian policies do not authorise student immigration from foreign universities to India.
The majority of the disgruntled students/petitioners, according to the government, left India for two reasons: first, because they performed poorly on the NEET exam, and second, because medical school was more affordable in these other nations.
The government stated, “It is humbly submitted that there may be several litigations from those desirous candidates who could not get seats in these colleges and have taken admission in either less prestigious colleges or have been deprived of a seat in medical colleges,” if these students with (a) poor merit are allowed admission in premier medical colleges in India by default.
The statement continued by stating that, should these individuals be assigned to private medical colleges in India, they could once again not be able to afford the fee schedule of the relevant Institutions. The statement read, “It is humbly submitted that the government of India in consultation with the NMC, the country’s top regulatory body for medical education, has taken the aforesaid proactive measures to assist returnee students from Ukraine while balancing the need to maintain the necessary standards of medical education in the country.
The government continued by stating that any further relaxation, including the request for the transfer of these returnee students to Indian medical colleges, would not only violate the terms of the National Medical Commission Act of 2019 and the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956, as well as any regulations made thereunder but would also seriously jeopardise the quality of medical education in the nation.
The matter will be heard by a bench led by Justice Hemant Gupta on Friday, according to the centre’s representative’s statement that the document was included in the batch of pleas.
The ministry of health and family welfare was advised to accommodate these students in Indian institutions and universities as a one-time gesture by the Lok Sabha committee on external affairs in a report dated August 3.
