E-Paper
Bombay HC: No stay on screening test for medical graduates with foreign degrees
The Bombay high court (HC) has refused to grant a stay on Foreign Medical Graduate Exam (FMGE) screening test to be held on Friday, June 18, for thousands of students who have secured medical qualifications said to be at par with MBBS degrees from institutes outside India
The Bombay high court (HC) has refused to grant a stay on Foreign Medical Graduate Exam (FMGE) screening test to be held on Friday, June 18, for thousands of students who have secured medical qualifications said to be at par with MBBS degrees from institutes outside India.
A group of medical students had filed a petition in HC seeking a stay on the test as the syllabus consisted of curriculum of the entire MBBS programme instead of only the final year, which was posing a problem for them.
The court prima facie held that as the exam was intended to test the knowledge acquired by the candidates over the entire undergraduate medical course, and as its criteria was approved by the Union government, National Medical Commission (NMC) (earlier known Medical Council of India) and the National Board of Examinations (NBE) in 2004, it was not staying the test.
The court has, however, asked NMC to submit its response to the challenge on the legality of the criteria of the test and posted the hearing of the petition after two weeks.
The division bench justice Nitin Jamdar and justice CV Bhadang, while hearing the petition by All India Medical Students Welfare Forum – a group of medical students from across the country – who were challenging the syllabus for the screening test, was informed by advocate Ashok Shetty that students who had completed their MBBS education from Russia and Kazakhstan among other countries, were facing problems as the exam consisted of curriculum of the entire MBBS programme and not the final year only.
Shetty submitted that the forum was seeking interim relief by postponing the screening test till the grievances raised by them on the issue of its legality were addressed.
However, advocate Ganesh Gole for NMC and NBE submitted that the grievances of the forum was unfounded as the screening tests had been conducted every year and thousands of students had cleared it and had been approved to start their practice.
He also placed the minutes of the meeting held in June 2004 following a Supreme Court direction to decide on the criteria and content of the screening test. He added that the minutes were approved by the Centre as well as by the then MCI and NBE, and said that the screening test being conducted now was in consonance with the 2004 decision.
Gole then sought time to respond to the issue of legality but urged the court not to postpone the test as the Delhi HC had last week rejected a similar plea which sought deferral of the exam due to the pandemic. He submitted that though there was no irregularity or illegality in the screening test, NMC would file an affidavit within two weeks, which the court permitted.
After hearing the submissions the bench said, “Our prima facie reading of the minutes shows that the decision regarding the test was taken not to have syllabus at the level of postgraduate examination, as the difficulty level would be high. According to us, the scheduled test will be carried out to find out if students have acquired knowledge of earlier years of course to reach final year.”
The court then observed that the criteria of the test from the minutes indicated that students would have to know the syllabus of the entire course and not only the final-year syllabus. In light of this, the court refused to grant any interim relief and posted further hearing after two weeks.
