HC provides relief to USSR passout Doctor without 12th class certification

A Kashmiri medical practitioner whose Delhi Medical Council(DMC), registration was declined on the ground that he did not possess a class 12 certificate mandatory for it and had studied medicine in USSR has been provided relief by the High Court.

Justice Vibhu Bakhru putting aside the DMC denial and relying on the Supreme Court guidelines meant for similar cases, decided to go ahead with granting the petitioner, Sheikh Bilal Bashir an approval, for enrollment as a medical practitioner, provided the registration had been asked for prior to March 15, 2001. The Court's consent was given in line with the guideline which allowed so, despite the applicant not meeting the minimum admission norms of the MCI.

The petitioner Bilal Bashir who had moved the High Court against the State Medical Council claimed that he had appeared in the Class 12 examinations conducted by Jammu and Kashmir State Board of School Education in 1993, which, unfortunately, had been cancelled due to mass copying by students, at the centre where he had taken his exam.

The petitioner, however, admitted that he did not re-appear for the examination due to the state being insurgency-ridden. After which he claimed to have left the country in pursuance of higher medical studies, in the former USSR.

He further claimed to have sought admission into an MD course for a physician in 1994 from a university recognized under the Medical Council Act.

On his return from the USSR, Bashir interned with Government Medical College and Hospital, Jammu, between May 2002 to June 2003.

On completion of the internship, the petitioner left for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to work as a resident doctor there, between August 2005 to April 2013.

On his return in 2013 to the country, he cleared the screening test examination conducted for foreign medical graduates by the National Board of Examinations, in June 2014, as per Screening Test Regulations, 2002.

Bashir then applied for registration as a medical doctor with the DMC.

The results of the said screening test were declared on August 5, 2014. The petitioner states that thereafter, he approached DMC and submitted his application for the purpose of registration as a medical doctor.He was however, declined registration on the basis that he had not qualified his 10+2 examination and was therefore, ineligible to be registered.

The DMC Counsel Praveen Khattar countering the petitioner's submission argued that clearing of the 10+2 examination was an essential for undergoing higher studies, which was not so in Sheikh Bilal Bashir's case, reports India Today.