HC directs state-run, BMC-run medical colleges to return documents of 76 students

The Bombay High Court has directed state-run and civic medical colleges in Maharashtra to return the documents of 76 students of various super-speciality courses. The court stated that educational institutions do not have a special lien over the documents.

Mumbai: Observing that educational institutions do not have a special lien over documents submitted by medical students and the documents cannot be withheld, the Bombay high court has directed several state-run and civic medical colleges across Maharashtra, including some from Mumbai, to return the documents of 76 students of various super-speciality courses.

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The division bench of justice Gautam Patel and justice Neela Gokhale also ordered the colleges to hand over the students’ marksheets, passing certificates and degree certificates of the super speciality courses.

The order came on an interim application filed by the students in their petition filed last year, complaining that their colleges have detained their personal educational documents – around 30 all from each of the students – to ensure that they serve the two-year bond after completing their super-speciality courses.

In the petition filed through advocate Pooja Thorat, the petitioners contended that they took admission in August 2019 for various super-speciality courses in Maharashtra on the condition that they would have to serve a bond for one year. However, well after they took admission, they were told that they would have to serve bonds for two years and failure to serve the bond period would entail a penalty of ₹2 crore to be paid to the state government. They filed the petition in January 2021, challenging the requirement of serving the two-year bond – compulsorily serving at a government or civic hospital in Maharashtra for the period.

They filed the interim application last year after they were asked to submit individual affidavits, agreeing to serve a two-year bond, as they were preparing for their final annual examination. They sought their mark lists, passing and degree certificates to be issued to them and the return of around 30 personal documents submitted by each of them to their respective colleges back, saying they would complete the one-year bond in October this year and they would need all these documents for registration with medical councils.

Their counsel, senior advocate VM Thorat, pointed out that at no point of time before their admissions to the super-speciality course, the petitioners were told about the requirement of serving bonds for two years and all the documents referred by their colleges, including city colleges like the Grant Medical College, Topiwala National Medical College attached to KEM Hospital, Lokmanya Tilak Medical College attached to Sion Hospital, and the Government Medical College at Nagpur mentioned the bond term to be of one year.

The Directorate of Medical Education and Research opposed the plea, contending that the Government Resolution dated October 12, 2017 – providing for a two-year bond was mentioned in several documents submitted by the petitioners themselves.

Advocate Thorat, however, pointed out that the GR was vaguely mentioned in the documents, and nothing prevented the government from superficially stating the two-year bond period or referencing the GR specifically in the admission documents.

Though the court deferred the issue of the term of the bond, the judges accepted the doctor’s plea for the return of their documents. “We believe it is clearly settled that colleges and educational institutions enjoy no special lien over these documents,” said the bench. “They are the personal documents of these students. They may be required by the college for various purposes at the time of admission. But they cannot be withheld,” it added.