The Supreme Court on Friday granted eight weeks time to the Army Medical College Sciences to pay stipend arrears, calculated at Rs 25,000 per month, to the MBBS interns of 2022.
The Bench of Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Aravind Kumar pulled up the institution for not complying with it’s previous order. In September 2023, a three-judge Bench had directed the Army College to pay a monthly stipend of Rs 25,000 to medical students of batches from October 2023.
The Apex Court asked Senior Advocate R Balasubramanian, representing the Army College, why it failed to disburse the stipend even after three years of its verdict.
Appearing for the petitioners, Advocate Tanvi Dubey apprised the Bench that three subsequent batches have received a stipend of Rs 25,000.
Another Advocate appearing for petitioner Abhishek Yadav said that they were the ones who approached the Court. They gave their services in the mandatory internship programme and had already finished their internship.
The Counsel said as per the Supreme Court order, the present batch commencing from today was entitled to get stipend of Rs 25,000. Yet, the original petitioners were not given any arrears.
The top court of the country rebuked the Army College for making the interns work for 18-19 hours and not paying them any stipend.
Senior Advocate Balasubramanian responded that the College was run by a society and not funded by the government.
The Bench observed that since these students worked for the College, they must be paid the stipend.
It then ordered the Army College to clear the arrears of interns belonging to the 2022 batch by paying stipend at Rs 25,000 per month, within eight weeks.