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National Medical Commission vs. Pooja Thandu Naresh & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2022 INSC 494Decided 29 Apr 2022
Civil Appeal Nos. 2950-2951 of 2022
Hemant Gupta · V. Ramasubramanian

Background

The respondent and other Indian students had studied MBBS at a medical university in China but, due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, could not complete part of their final-semester clinical/practical training in person and instead completed it online. The Tamil Nadu Medical Council refused them provisional registration (needed to do their compulsory internship in India) on the ground that in-person clinical training was mandatory and had not been completed. The Madras High Court intervened, directing provisional registration with a modified 14-month internship (2 extra months to make up for the missed hands-on training).

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that courts are not qualified to redesign medical curricula or dilute mandatory clinical-training requirements, and that genuine hands-on clinical training, which online classes cannot replicate, is essential before a person is allowed to practise medicine and treat patients. Since the students had admittedly not completed physical clinical training, they were not entitled to provisional registration merely because they cleared the Screening Test. At the same time, recognising that the pandemic had genuinely disrupted their education through no real fault of their own, the Court directed the National Medical Commission to frame, within two months, a one-time scheme allowing such students to complete the missing clinical training at institutions in India identified by the Commission, and to test them before granting provisional registration.

Lesson Learnt

Courts will not compromise essential hands-on training standards for doctors even to accommodate pandemic-era hardship, but they can direct regulators to design a fair, one-time remedial pathway rather than leaving affected students with no recourse at all.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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