A GR issued in 2011 allows in-service medical officers with foreign degrees to apply for PG courses. However, new admission rules notified by the state government in February overruled the GR and barred candidates who studied abroad from these courses.
In an interim relief to four doctors who obtained their medical degrees from universities in Russia and China, Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court (HC) last week allowed them to seek admission to post-graduation (PG) medical courses.
The in-service candidates – those who have served at least three years in government-run healthcare facilities in remote, tribal and hilly areas for at least three years – took National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) – PG, but were barred by state common entrance test (CET) cell to register for admission after being told that admission rules did not allow candidates with foreign medical degrees to apply for post-graduate courses.
The high court has, however, held that the eligibility criteria for in-service candidates don’t have any restriction on foreign-educated candidates. In their judgment, the bench of justices RK Deshpande and SM Modak directed the state to process the applications of the candidates Dr. Narendra Naukarkar, Dr. Vaibhav Kale, Swarup Ingole, and Dr. Chetan Gangane on a provisional basis.
“There is no bar contained for such candidates in the government resolution (GR) dated May 3, 2011… The petitioners were held eligible to appear in the NEET Examination, which is the entrance test for admission to Post Graduate Courses,” read the judgment.
A GR issued in 2011 allows in-service medical officers with foreign degrees to apply for PG courses. However, new admission rules notified by the state government in February overruled the GR and barred candidates who studied abroad from these courses. ” Candidates who have passed MBBS examination from foreign University are not eligible for NEET-PG 2019 admission process,” read the information brochure issued by the CET Cell.
Anand Rayate, commissioner, CET cell, said, “While the online registration process for PG medical courses is over, we have manually registered the four candidates according to the court’s order. We have also apprised the state government and the Admission Regulating Authority (ARA) of the issue. We are awaiting their directions,” he said. The court will hear the matter again on Wednesday.
Courtesy: hindustan times