Foreign MBBS holders can't be given provisional registration without clinical training, says Supreme Court

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, April 29

Foreign MBBS holders can’t be given provisional registration to complete their internship in India without completing the clinical training in physical form, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday.

A Bench led by Justice Hemant Gupta said that “without practical training, there cannot be any Doctor who is expected to take care of the citizens of the country. Hence, the decision of the appellant (National medical Commission) not to grant provisional registration cannot be said to be arbitrary.”

However, in view of a large number of Indian medical students coming back from Ukraine, the top court directed the NMC to frame a scheme as a one-time measure within two months to allow the student and such similarly situated students who have not actually completed clinical training to undergo clinical training in India in the medical colleges which may be identified by the NMC for a limited duration specified by it, on charges determined by it.

The Bench said, “It shall be open to the appellant (NMC) to test the candidates in the scheme so framed in the manner within next one month, which it considers appropriate as to satisfy that such students are sufficiently trained to be provisionally registered to complete internship for 12 months.”

The ruling came on the NMC’s appeal against a Madras High Court’s order reversing the Tamil Nadu Medical Council’s decision declining provisional registration to some students who had undergone nine semesters of their academic course including clinical training in medical colleges in China. However, due to COVID19 pandemic, the clinical training for Ophthalmology, Otorhinolaryngology and Nuclear Medicine in the 10th Semester was done online and they were granted MBBS degrees.

“We find that the Commission is not bound to grant provisional registration to the student who has not completed the entire duration of the course from the Foreign Institute including the clinical training”, the Bench said, adding “We do not find that in terms of the Screening Regulations, the students are entitled to the provisional registration.”

It said, “We are unable to agree with the (Madras) High Court that instead of three months of clinical training in China, two months training would be sufficient for provisional registration apart from the 12 months of internship. The Courts are not expert in deciding an academic curriculum or the requirement of the clinical training which may be required to be satisfied by the students.”