The Supreme Court chastised a private medical college on Friday for requiring a postgraduate student to pay five lakhs in lieu of compulsory service after completing her course. In 2020, a Single Judge Bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court ruled that the appellant college's refusal to release the petitioner's original documents and certificate until she deposited the bond money was "unsustainable in law." As a result, the medical college was ordered to refund the money, plus interest, within 30 days. A Division Bench of the High Court upheld the writ court's decision on appeal. The private medical college filed an appeal against this decision before the Supreme Court, which was presided over by a Bench of Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Hima Kohli.

The Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the imposition of compulsory bonds for admission to post-graduate medical courses and super specialty courses in August 2019. While dismissing the challenge, a Bench comprised of Justices L. Nageswara Rao and Hemant Gupta noted that certain state governments had rigid conditions in the compulsory bonds and suggested the promulgation of a uniform policy on the compulsory service to be rendered by doctors trained in government institutions that would be applicable across states.

According to the counsel for the private medical college, all government medical colleges take a bond in the range of Rs 30-50 lakhs and encash it if the MBBS student refuses to work in the attached government hospital after graduation and subsequent post-graduation courses.

Earlier this year, in August, the Supreme Court refused to hear a petition by MBBS students seeking to overturn the compulsory bond conditions in the undergraduate medical course, instead directing the petitioners to the Bombay High Court. Notably, the Union Health Ministry is developing guidelines to eliminate the bond policy for doctors, which requires them to work for a specified period of time in a state-run hospital following their graduation and postgraduate course, according to Mint.

Case Title: Ruxmaniben Deepchand Gardi Medical College v. Anshul Jain & Ors.

SLP (C) No. 19396/2022

https://main.sci.gov.in/supremecourt/2022/33893/33893_2022_1_12_39888_Order_18-Nov-2022.pdf