The Jammu & Kashmir High Court on March 27 held that medical colleges didn't need to fill 30 per cent of the total number of posts for “non-medical subjects” with non medical graduate candidates — adding to the woes of Medical MSc/PhD teachers.
The court was hearing a plea by a candidate who applied for the post of Assistant Professor (Non-Medical) in Clinical Pharmacology at the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), who was found ineligible and not selected despite being interviewed.
As the institute issued a fresh advertisement for the post, the candidate petitioned the J&K High Court (HC), challenging his rejection and the advertisement.
In its judgement, the HC observed that the Minimum Qualification for Teachers in Medical Institutions Regulations, 1998 (MCI Regulations) mentioned that medical institutions “may” fill 30 per cent of non-medical teaching posts with non-medical graduates, and doing so is not mandatory.
Not surprised, say Medical MSc/PhD graduates
Medical MSc & PhD teachers’ associations claimed that this judgement is in line with pre-existing biases against them within the medical community.
“This judgement is not surprising at all, as it is based on rules that are biased against us,” says Dr Shashank Kambali, founder of The MSc Medicine Association (TMMA).
He adds that the medical community believes that MBBS graduates are better equipped and qualified to teach so-called non-medical subjects, which include physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, and others than graduates who hold MSc and PhD degrees in those subjects.
“The problem is in the very language they use to denote us and the subjects — non-medical subjects and graduates. We are medical graduates, as we studied and graduated from medical institutions, and can apply our subject knowledge for medical use,” Dr Kambali says.
To recall, medical MSc and PhD candidates allege being discriminated against by MBBS graduates in employment. More recently, they have been claiming that they are not being hired in full-time teaching positions in favour of MBBS graduates, and even forced to let go of their positions in favour of the latter.
A dangerous precedent?
Dr Kambali believes that the J&K High Court order has dangerous ramifications for the fate of Medical MSc/PhD candidates in India.
“We are in a marginalised position, to begin with; this verdict only makes our marginalisation and discrimination permissible on legal grounds,” he laments, adding that medical institutions can now refer to this judgement when MSc/PhD candidates challenge the discrimination they face in their hands.
Even though the Telangana High Court and the Madras High Court slammed medical institutions for not hiring medical MSc/PhD candidates, Dr Kambali says that these cases helped only the individual petitioners’ cases, and not the medical MSc/PhD graduate community as a whole.
“The system was always rigged against us, but nobody spoke up as our employment was still secure. Now, we face the risk of losing our jobs to MBBS candidates,” he explains.
To turn the tide in their favour, he says that MSc/PhD graduates must challenge the National Medical Commission (NMC) directly.
“We filed a petition at the Supreme Court challenging NMC guidelines last year. We are yet to receive a date for a hearing, but we are optimistic that it will change things for the better for us,” he says.
In addition, he says that the Association is planning to send representations to concerned authorities at the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoFW), and run social media campaigns to raise awareness about their cause.
