MBBS admission: Delhi HC notice to Centre, Punjab colleges on petition challenging NMC regulations

The petitioner students sought direction from the respondents to restore and confirm the MBBS admission of petitioners at their respective medical colleges in terms of earlier policy i.e. Regulations on Graduate Medical Education, 1997. The petitioners are also seeking direction from the respondents to grant a mercy chance in the form of an additional examination attempt to the petitioners

New Delhi : The Delhi high court on Thursday sought responses from the Union of India, the National Medical Commission (NMC) and four medical colleges of Punjab on a petition moved by four MBBS students challenging regulations of the NMC.

The Delhi high court on Thursday sought responses from the Union of India, the National Medical Commission (NMC) and four medical colleges of Punjab on a petition moved by four MBBS students challenging regulations of the NMC.

The petitioner students sought direction from the respondents to restore and confirm the MBBS admission of petitioners at their respective medical colleges in terms of earlier policy i.e. Regulations on Graduate Medical Education, 1997. The petitioners are also seeking direction from the respondents to grant a mercy chance in the form of an additional examination attempt to the petitioners.

The petitioners also seek direction for quashing Regulation No. 7.7 of Regulations on Graduate Medical Education (Amendment), 2019 issued by Respondent NMC whereby the said Regulation has been implemented retrospectively with respect to batches admitted in MBBS course from the academic year 2019-20 onwards, stated the plea.

The bench of justice Satish Chander Sharma and justice Subramonium Prasad on Thursday sought the response of all respondents including several medical colleges and deferred the matter for October 7, 2022, after noting that the identical matters are also listed for hearing on the same day.

The Petitioners are residents of Punjab, who have passed Class 12 and are presently pursuing their MBBS course in their medical colleges/universities. The petitioners were admitted to the MBBS course for the academic year 2019-2020 based on their ‘All India Rank’ and “Category Rank’ in the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) conducted by the National Testing Agency. The Petitioners are students falling under the Scheduled Caste (SC) category, read the plea.

The plea further stated that the impugned Regulation is discriminatory in retrospective implementation i.e. having different yardsticks for students admitted in different years.