The Central government has informed the Supreme Court that with the existing regulations the migration of foreign medical students to India is not permitted and the accommodations made in this regard were only on account of the Russia-Ukraine war.
The Central Government of India had earlier filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court in a batch of pleas which were filed by the Indian students who have been evacuated from Ukraine to get permission for continuing their medical studies in India.
In an affidavit, the Ministry of Health said that the petitioners who are asking for accommodating them in colleges are the ones who secured poor in NEET exams andthus moved to Ukraine.
it was added that these students cannot be put in any private medical colleges, as they are only rank base colleges. It also added that with the marks and ranking, these colleges are difficult to get; also the fees is too high for many students.
Only Relaxations have been made were for final-year medical students on account of exigencies, and accommodating other students on the same grounds will hamper the standards of medical education in India besides violating the law of the land, the affidavit states.
The petitioners had said that a public notice issued by the Central government to accommodate foreign students stuck in war-torn countries in global universities was not applicable to Indian colleges.
The Health Ministry’s affidavit said that the notice cannot be understood as ‘back-door entry’ to Indian medical institutes.
The sudden war clouds led to evacuation of many students who have literally no option left after the unfortunate events in Ukraine.
Many petitions have been filed in this regard.An important petition was also filed through advocate Ashwarya Sinha, who said that all the 14000 student who have been evacuated are completely lost when it comes to education. He requests the court to protect their fundamental rights under Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India have become illusory.
The advocate also added that petitioners(read students) are going through a tough phase as their entire career hangs in ambiguity as there seems no peace restoration in the war torn country so far.
The petition said that “The unfortunate situation which has transpired in the present case is that the Petitioners are neither in a position to resume their education at their respective institutions in Ukraine nor permitted to continue their education at institutions in India under the present regulations.
The petitioners have also asked for issuing an appropriate direction under section 45 of National Medical commission Act to frame guidelines for migration of Indian students as a one time measure for the similar academic year so that their career is not jeopardised.
The petition also looks forward to formulate guidelines under Section 46 of the National Medical Commission Act, 2019; for appropriate direction upon the respondents to provide adequate infrastructural/academic and financial support to the evacuated students for the continuation of medical education.