Madras HC refuses to interfere in NMC decision related to OCI student

Madras High Court has upheld the NMC decision to not issue eligibility certificates to an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI), who is a medical student, to practice in India.

Madras High Court has supported the National Medical Commission's (NMC) decision to not allow a student to write the screening test Foreign Medical Graduate Examination, which is mandatory for her to be eligible to practice medicine in India. 

The student is an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) as she pursued medical education in China. To practice in India, she needs to clear  Foreign Medical Graduate Examination. NMC had not given her eligibility certificate to appear for this test because she has not studied English as a separate subject during her higher secondary education exam.

"Admittedly, the Petitioner has not undergone English as a separate subject in the Higher Secondary Course. The experts in their wisdom have stipulated eligibility criteria and this court exercising its jurisdiction under Article 226 of Constitution of India, cannot sit over judgment upon this stipulation made by the experts. The individual opinion of a judge cannot come in the way while deciding cases of this nature and this court have to necessarily satisfy itself as to whether a candidate fulfils the qualification prescribed in the regulation. The law on this issue is well settled," observed Justice N Anand Venkatesh.

The petitioner in this case had studied in India till her secondary school education and then she moved to Sri Lanka where she continued her higher secondary education and studied MBBS from University in China. In her higher secondary education, she studied the subjects - Physics, Biology, Chemistry and Mathematics in the English language but had not studied English as a separate subject.

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