The Solicitor General (SG) of India Tushar Mehta on Friday told the Supreme Court that the Central Government has liaised with other countries for sending its Ukraine returnee medical students for completing their first, second, or third year course.
A bench of Justice Hemant Gupta and Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia have asked the Solicitor general to demonstrate as to how will a student who wishes to can easily do so. Bench also suggested for development of portal.
Justice Gupta said “This is already done? How will I go? Let’s say I’ve to go to Belgium, how?…There is a need to coordinate, maybe you can develop a portal.
Justice Gupta when told that a liaison officer has been appointed ,asked for making a portal for transparency and ease.
“Certainly, I’ll speak to the government. I will not take an adversarial view,” replied the Solicitor General.
The court has posted the matter on 23 September, 2022 when the SG will place before the Court further instructions from the Central government on the same.
The court was today hearing a plea which was filed by Indian medical students who want to complete their studies which they left while returning from Ukraine after the war began there and they had to be evacuated.
A Bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and Vikram Nath in August had sought response of the Union Health Ministry and the National Medical Commission (NMC) in the matter.
The Central government, had replied that the existing regulations do not allow the migration of foreign medical students to India.
It also had clarified that the accommodations that were made in this regard were only on account of the Russia-Ukraine war and the pandemic.
Earlier the petitioners had told the court that MEA in its report had recommended to the Union Health Ministry for considering Indian private medical institutions to enroll Ukraine returnee students for pursuing their education as a one-time measure.
The plea had contended that as this was not acted upon, fate of 14000 students was left in lurch.
The petitioners had argued that the NMC had selectively extended relief only to those students who had completed their degrees and had clinical training and internship remaining..