High Court permits MBBS students to take up exams as and when RGUHS conducts

The Karnataka High Court passed the order to permit the students, who are unable to write the MBBS examination being conducted by the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS), due to COVID-19 or for any other reason, to write the examination subsequently, as and when the university issues a notification. Justice R Devdas passed the order while disposing of the petition filed by Pani Yupung from Arunachal Pradesh and 19 others. 

Referring to the advisory of the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), the court said that it is possible that some of the students arriving from Kerala and even other states may test positive. Under such circumstances, the RGUHS had issued the notification earlier, enabling such students who were issued hall tickets but who were unable to attend the examination, to write the examination subsequently. In view of this, the court is of the opinion that if the petitioners, for any reason, are unable to write the ensuing examination, they should be permitted to write the examination subsequently as and when the university issues a notification, taking into consideration that many of the students were not able to write the examination for any reason whatsoever, be it for COVID-19 or otherwise.

According to the order, the advisory issued by the state government would also apply to the medical students. Hence, the state government has sought the advice or opinion of the TAC, which, in turn, advised that the examination can go on but with certain conditions. The condition is that the medical students arriving from Kerala should be asymptomatic. The medical students, irrespective of their vaccination status/certificate, should bring a negative RT-PCR certificate that is not older than 72 hours on arrival in Karnataka. They should remain for seven days under self-quarantine, medical supervision and strictly follow COVID-appropriate behaviour. It is advised that the examination centres should conduct theory examinations for these students in separate halls and separately for clinical and practical examinations after prior screening for COVID-19, like thermal scanning for fever, pulse oximeter for oxygen saturation and so on.