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Supreme Court adjourned the matter seeking induction of Foreign Medical Graduates (FMGs) in the healthcare workforce, to Friday after a brief afternoon hearing.

A Division Bench of Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice MR Shah, while hearing the matter expressed inclination to find the reasons attributed by the bench of Justice Bansal, Delhi High Court, in its order passed on June 11.  

It was informed that prayer A is sought for exemption of the exam, Prayer C is for granting a mandamus lowering the qualifying criteria of FMGE.

Senior Counsel Mr. Sibal, appearing for the petitioners submitted that Prayer A is not pressed.

Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde appeared for a petitioner from Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh, seeking relief from appearing in the examination.

 “There are two criteria of students. One is Russian Students who have qualified the exam and got registered. The second criteria has cleared the exam, but not been given internship. They have to respond to it”, submitted Mr. Sibal.

The petition has been moved by Association of MD Physicians and two other associations through Advocate Astha Sharma who have submitted that FMGs are doctors who have obtained their primary medical degrees such as/ equivalent to MBBS outside India and hence should be treated at par with the Indian medical graduates.

The Petitioners have sought a one-time exemption for their members, and for all other FMGs eligible to take the FMGE, from taking such FMGE, and to be inducted into the COVID-19 workforce in order to augment the health infrastructure of the country. 

In the alternative, the Petitioners seek that the qualifying criteria of FMGs who had taken the FMGE December 2020 be reduced and brought at par with that of graduates who took the NEET Postgraduate examination of 2020, in order to make such FMGs eligible to be part of the national healthcare workforce.

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