Reconsider plea of twin sisters for NORI certificates: Bombay HC orders Centre

Bombay high court last week directed the Union health and family welfare ministry to reconsider plea of twin sisters, both MBBS, seeking No Obligation to Return

Bombay high court last week directed the Union health and family welfare ministry to reconsider plea of twin sisters, both MBBS, seeking No Obligation to Return to India (NORI) certificates to enable them to settle down in the United States of America and pursue careers in research.

Bombay High Court.

Though the Centre has stopped issuing NORI certificates to doctors, to stem brain drain, the division bench of justices Nitin Jamdar and Milind Jadhav directed the Union ministry to examine the request of the twin sisters, Avani and Aditi Vaishnav, given their wish to pursue careers in research in the US and not to practice medicine.

Both of them had moved HC after the ministry of education rejected their applications for NOC to get NORI certificate in June 2020, primarily because of the Union health and family welfare ministry’s policy of not issuing NORI certificates to doctors.

Their petitions state that both the petitioners have completed their MBBS courses from a private medical college in Navi Mumbai and have also completed their one-year internship in 2017. Their entire family has applied for family immigration to the US and their parents and sister have already received their green cards in August / September 2019.

Their counsels pointed out to HC that the twin sisters had sought review of the education ministry’s decision on the ground that both of them were already engaged in temporary research assignments in the UD and wanted to pursue careers in research, and neither of them wishes to practice as doctors. But, the review was dismissed without considering the fact.

Advocate Rajshekhar Govilkar, who appeared for the central ministry, opposed the petition on the ground that the central government has as a matter of policy decided to stop issuing NORI certificates to doctors.

HC, however, found force in the submissions advanced on behalf of the twin sisters, especially the December 2016 decision of the HC relied on them in Dr Sunil Noothi’s case, arising out of similar circumstances.

The bench noted that in Dr Noothi’s case HC has held that the policy decision of not issuing

NORI certificate to any doctor to stem the brain drain of doctors and to cope up with the acute shortage of doctors in India, cannot be applied to a medical graduate who does not wish to practice medicine.

“It is obvious that even if he resides in India, he is not going to render his services to the citizens of India as a doctor because of his inclination in research work,” HC had observed in Dr Noothi’s case.

Noticing that the HC has in the December 2016 judgment made a clear distinction between the medical practitioner and a research scholar, the bench headed by justice Jamdar directed Union health and family welfare ministry to reconsider the case of the twin sisters in terms of the December 2016 HC judgment and take a fresh decision on their plea by January 20, 2021.