High court notice to Haryana on plea challenging bond policy for MBBS students

The Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday put Haryana government on notice on a plea seeking quashing of bond policy notified on November 6 by the state government for MBBS students.

The petitioner, Harlove Singh Rajput, sought reconsideration of policy by the state or stay on the same, pending petition in high court. Besides, seeking quashing of the policy.

The state’s response has been sought by February 11.

The fee in public medical colleges has been raised to ₹10 lakh per year from around ₹50,000 per year. With this, a student seeking admission in an MBBS course will have to pay ₹40 lakh for the four-year course. In order to incentivise doctors to opt for Haryana government medical service, the state government on November 6 came out with a policy which states that candidates selected for MBBS degree course in government medical colleges need to execute an annual bond for ₹10 lakh minus the fee at the start of every academic year.

The candidate can pay the entire bond amount without recourse to the loan or the state government will facilitate them for availing an education loan for this amount. As per the policy, the government will repay annual installments of the loan if the candidate obtains employment with the state government.

The public interest litigation says the policy is not in commensurate with the spirit of the constitution.

It was argued that that state says it would not be under obligation to provide employment. The policy has neglected the objective of providing subsidized education to meritorious students whereby money is being preferred over merit. By this way, the noble profession will be available only for the rich and irrespective of the merit/ rank / score secured by a candidate in NEET, it was argued. It says the government will not be able to provide employment to all the doctors. Hence, it is clear that the burden of ₹36 lakh along with its 5 year interest will be imposed over the shoulders of MBBS graduate, the court was told.