In a recent development, the Supreme Court upheld the Medical Council of India’s regulation on Wednesday.
Qualifying NEET UG Must For Practicing In India For Students Pursuing Medical Courses Abroad
Under this latest ruling, the Supreme court made it mandatory for students to qualify for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) if they want to pursue undergraduate medical courses in foreign institutions.
Basically, this regulation was earlier introduced during 2018 further ensuring that Indian students studying medicine abroad should meet the required standards to practice medicine in India.
Moving ahead, the regulation is fair, transparent, and does not conflict with any statutory provisions, the court stated in its ruling.
It is noteworthy here that the requirement of qualifying the NEET UG is mandatory.
In addition to this, the eligibility criteria prescribed in the Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 1997 also needs to be fulfilled.
The petition was heard by a bench of Justices B R Gavai and K Vinod Chandran during the Supreme Court trial.
Medical Council Has Power To Introduce Regulations
It appears that the petitioners had challenged the regulation, in their argument they said that it was introduced without amending the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956.
During the trial, the court held that the Medical Council had the power to introduce the regulation under Section 33 of the Act.
Further, the bench said, “We find absolutely no reason to interfere with the regulations.”
Besides this, they also refused an exemption as a one time measure.
Further, the bench added, “Obviously, with open eyes, after the amended regulations came into effect if any candidate chose to obtain admission in a foreign institution for pursuing a course leading to a primary medical qualification, they cannot seek for an exemption from the regulations; which lays down essential eligibility criteria for practicing medicine within the country. This does not restrict their right to practice anywhere outside India.”
This simply means that the Indian students seeking to study medicine abroad must now qualify NEET UG to be eligible for admission to foreign medical institutions, as per the court’s ruling.
