The Supreme Court on Friday asked the government to consider creating a web portal containing details of foreign universities where Ukraine-returned Indian medical students can apply to complete their courses under the academic mobility programme approved by the National Medical Commission (NMC).
A Bench led by Justice Hemant Gupta said students should have the benefit of a transparent system which gave them information about the foreign universities, number of seats available in them and their compatibility.
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Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, for the government, sought time to take instructions. The court adjourned the case to September 23.
In an affidavit recently, the government had made it clear that the law did not allow undergraduate medical students, who fled the "war-like situation" in Ukraine, to be accommodated in Indian medical colleges.
The affidavit from the Health Ministry had been in response to petitions filed by students, in their first to fourth years of undergraduate medical studies in Ukraine, seeking transfer to colleges in India to continue their semesters here.
However, the Centre had pointed out that in order to "aid and assist such returnee students who could not complete their MBBS courses in Ukraine, the NMC, in consultation with the Ministry of External Affairs has issued a public notice on September 9 indicating that NMC would accept completion of their remaining course in other foreign countries (with the approval of parent university in Ukraine)".
"Further, after such completion, the certificate of course completion/degree is expected to be issued by the parent institutions in Ukraine," the affidavit had said.
The affidavit clarified that this global "academic mobility programme" mentioned in the September 9 public notice cannot be interpreted to mean accommodation of the Ukraine-returned students in Indian colleges.
