Foreign Medical Graduates get relief as A.P. High Court asks APMC to issue PR to appellant

The Hindu

11 hours ago

In a major relief for Foreign Medical Graduates (FMGs), who have been fighting for the Permanent Registrations (PRs) for 13 months, a Division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on July 9 overturned the judgment of the Single Judge Bench, passed on April 28, and directed the Andhra Pradesh Medical Council (APMC) to issue PR to an appellant in accordance to the National Medical Commission (NMC)'s June 19 notification within a month.
A writ petition was filed by FMGs, seeking the High Court to order the APMC, then represented by the Registrar, to grant the PR to them since they have completed the mandatory one-year internship.
In response, the APMC, citing the NMC's guidelines of November 22, 2023, and December 7, 2023, stated that the petitioners have not sufficiently compensated their online study with the offline studies abroad, and therefore, the APMC has not considered their request to issue PRs.
On April 28, the Single Judge Bench, considering the NMC's June 7, 2024 notification, dismissed the petition. Later, an intra-court appeal was filed by an FMG, K. Vamsi.
It may be noted that the NMC issued a notification on June 7 that mandated a two-year internship for FMGs who studied a part of their course online during the COVID-19 pandemic. But after it received backlash from FMGs across the country, the NMC issued another notice on June 19, 2024, in continuation of the first notice.
The June 19 notification clarified that those who have sufficiently compensated for their online classes, took their final exams offline, are eligible for one-year internship.
While many States followed the June 19 notification and allotted one-year internship to FMGs who have valid compensation certificates, Andhra Pradesh followed the previous guidelines that mandated two or three years of internship, stating that the certificates were not detailed.
In the July 9's judgment, a Divisional Bench of the High Court overturned the April 28 ruling, and stated that the Single Judge did not consider the NMC's public notice dated June 19, 2024, before rejecting the petitioner's contention.
The Bench, in its judgment, ordered that the APMC shall grant PR to the appellant, since he has completed the one-year mandatory internship as specified in the Compulsory Rotating Medical Internship (CRMI) Regulations, 2021, and as per the June 19 notice.
The Bench said the APMC should verify the documents, and if the appellant 'is found to have met the necessary criterion of public notice dated 19.06.2024, PR shall be issued.'
The Bench directed that if the APMC doubted the veracity of documents, the burden falls on it to ensure the validity of the documents. The Bench gave a timeline and said the entire exercise should be completed before August 9.
Welcoming the judgment, the Andhra Pradesh Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association (APNA) said the verdict marks an end to the injustice faced by foreign medical graduates over the past year.
APNA State president A.V. Subba Reddy said that now that the court ruled in favour of the appellant, PRs should be granted to all eligible candidates who meet the same criteria.