On January 16, the division bench of the Supreme Court of India led by Justices B.R. Gavai and Vikram Nath sought the stand of the Centre and the National Medical Commission on a plea against a circular retrospectively requiring foreign medical graduates without clinical training to undergo a Compulsory Rotatory Medical Internship (CRMI) for two years instead of one. A division bench directed this matter to be heard along with a batch of petitions filed by foreign graduates from China, Ukraine, Philippines, who were unable to complete clinical training because of intervening circumstances such as the COVID-19 pandemic or the Russia-Ukraine war, and consequently, wanted to be accommodated within the Indian medical education architecture. The batch of petitions will be heard on Wednesday, January 25.

The court further was informed by Advocate Shivam Singh that the scheme framed by the National Medical Commission, pursuant to an April 2022 ruling, allowing foreign graduates who were unable to complete clinical training to secure provisional registration in India after completing an internship of two years, was made to retrospectively cover even such foreign medical students who had already received their provisional or permanent registration certificates. The effect of this circular was that the registration of such doctors, despite them having treated patients for several months, stood cancelled and the certificates already issued by state medical councils were revoked. Singh argued, “The petitioners are not shying away from an opportunity to gain more experience. But they are in a situation where the court has directed the centre and the commission to devise a workable solution for the junior batch that has completed three semesters online, whereas the petitioners have had only one remote semester. That too, at a time when the pandemic was waging – between January and May 2020. After that, the petitioners have also qualified the Foreign Medical Graduates Examination and secured their provisional medical registration.”

On behalf of the bench, he pronounced, “Issue notice returnable on January 25. The petitioners have also been granted the liberty to serve the standing counsel for the first respondent and the central agency for the other respondent.”

Case Title: Gurmukh Singh & Ors. v. National Medical Commission & Ors.
Citation: Writ Petition (Civil) No. 25/2023