Supreme Court issues notice in plea filed against restriction on attempts to clear MBBS course

A notice has been issued by the Supreme Court in a plea filed by MBBS graduates challenging the Delhi High Court's verdict upholding the amended Regulations of Graduate Medical Examination (2019).

The plea, which was filed by five disabled MBBS students, challenged the amendment to the regulations that allow no more than four attempts to clear the first professional university examination. A Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha issued a notice in the case on Thursday, December 15. The matter will be listed in the second week of January, 2023.

This amended rule applied to MBBS students who joined the 2019 batch. The rules also state that the first professional course must be cleared within a period of not more than four years. There was no restriction on the number of attempts or the time period before these amendments were introduced. The plea states that by applying these amendments to students starting from the 2019-2020 batch, the centre is setting "different yardsticks" for students from different batches, according to a report by LiveLaw.

The petitioners claimed the amendments were enforced without appropriate consultation with state governments, as mandated by Section 19 (A) of the Indian Medical Council Act. The Act states that copies of draft regulations must be sent to state governments for feedback. This feedback, to be sent by state governments within three months, must be considered by the Council before the draft regulations are forwarded to the central government for sanction.

According to LiveLaw, the petitioners, whose MBBS course commenced in September 2019, also claimed that the COVID-19 pandemic impacted their learning, which was conducted through the digital mode, on sketchy networks and the absence of proper infrastructure for virtual learning in some areas. The petitioners were demotivated and some of them even went into depression. The Hon'ble High Court has ignored that the Petitioners are persons with disabilities who at least deserve a mercy chance in the form of an additional examination attempt," said the plea, according to the report by LIveLaw.