New Delhi, Feb 24: The Supreme Court today took note of the changed stand of Union Government in waiving screening test for registration as medical practitioners for Indian students having medicine degrees from erstwhile USSR and sought the response of the Medical Council of India (MCI). A Bench comprising Chief Justice V N Khare, Justice S B Sinha and Justice S H Kapadia, before adjourning till end of March the hearing on a petition filed by one Sanjeev Kumar seeking relief on admissions to medical courses in India for these students, asked MCI counsel Maninder Singh to file the response for the regulatory body.
The recent affidavit filed by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in the apex Court sought to change the earlier view that those students coming back to India with medical degrees from the CIS countries obtained after March 15, 2002, had to take a mandatory screening test for eligibility into medical courses in the country.
Terming the hardship faced by the students as a human problem, the Ministry requested the Court to allow the Government to issue a fresh notification extending the cut-off date to March 15, 2004.
If these students have completed medicine course of six years' duration in the 29 recognised institutions across the CIS countries, then they needed to successfully complete one year of internship in India for the purpose of grant of permanent registration, the Ministry said. Bureau Report