SC to hear all petitions related to Ukraine-returned Indian med students on September 15  

A petition that was filed in the Supreme Court demanding that Indian medical students, who were forced to return from Ukraine due to the war with Russia this year, be declared as "War Victims/Protected Persons" under the Geneva Convention of 1949, will now be heard on September 15.  It was filed by the National Medical Forum, an NGO, "in order to safeguard and enforce the fundamental rights of the evacuee Indian students of war-torn Ukraine, particularly the Right to Life, Right to Education and Right to Equality enshrined and guaranteed under Article 21 and Article 21A and Article 14 of the Constitution of India." 

Dr Prem Aggarwal, President, National Medical Forum, shared with EdexLive that the court said that all petitions related to stranded Indian medical students, who were forced to return from Ukraine, have been clubbed together and will be heard on September 15. 

Other petitions

One of the petitions submits that the students who had to evacuate from Ukraine in order to escape an ongoing war had to also give up their education. The petition seeks urgent directions to frame guidelines to accommodate them in Indian medical colleges as any further delay would hamper their career, as stated in a report by LiveLaw.

The Supreme Court, on Friday, September 9, issued a notice in the pleas seeking directions to concerned authorities to frame and implement guidelines for assimilation of undergraduate medical students evacuated from Ukraine into Indian medical colleges in the exercise of powers under the National Medical Commission Act, 2019, the report by LiveLaw stated.