MCI rule on bonus marks for doctors in PG courses would apply: SC

New Delhi: The Supreme Court said the admissions to post-graduate medical courses in Rajasthan as per NEET ranks will take place in accordance with the MCI Regulations after giving incentive marks to MBBS doctors who have served in government health facilities in remote areas.

A bench of Justices Dipak Misra, A M Khanwilkar and M M Shantanagoudar rejected a prayer of petitioner doctors, who are not in government service, to stay the Rajasthan High Court order granting 10, 20 and 30 per cent incentive marks in PG admissions to government doctors for rendering services in rural areas for a period of one, two and three years respectively.

The top court passed the order on a batch of pleas filed by non-service doctors and said the matters will be finally heard in August and the admissions of this year will be subject to the final outcome of the petitions.

The pleas filed by Amit Bagra and other doctors, who have MBBS degrees but are not in government service, challenged the April 7 order of a division bench of the High Court which had mandated the state government to give up to 30 per cent bonus marks to in-service government doctors for PG seats.

The apex court had earlier issued notice to the state government and the Medical Council of India (MCI) on a plea seeking quashing of the High Court order granting bonus marks as per the Post Graduate Medical Regulations 2000.

The pleas filed through lawyer Sahir Hussain, had alleged that the incentive marks were granted to in-service MBBS doctors without even defining remote areas.

The petitioners are MBBS students of non-service category who appeared in NEET-PG 2017 and cleared it.

As per the Medical Council of India regulation of February 15, 2012, discretionary powers were given to state government/competent authority to award incentive marks to the in-service candidates working in the notified remote areas.

The state government had issued a notification on March 24 thia year giving 50 per cent reservation in the state quota for students passing out of colleges affiliated to Rajasthan University/Rajasthan University of Health Sciences as well as provided blanket 10 per cent bonus marks to in-service candidates. This notification was stayed by a single judge of the high court on April 3 this year.

In-service candidates had challenged the order and the division bench of the HC on April 7 had directed the state government to grant incentive marks upto 30 per cent to in- service candidates.

The plea said that defining the remote or difficult areas would give an option to the medical officers to opt for such area in order to avail benefits of the incentive marks and it is only after someone has consciously opted for working in a remote area, that any benefit of marks can be awarded.