Observing that India is one unified country and there should be uniformity in medical admissions across the nation, the Madras High Court has ordered that non-service government college medical graduates must be allowed to pursue higher studies in government institutions in other States, under the All India Quota, without having to fulfil onerous conditions such as furnishing a bank guarantee for ₹40 lakh.
Justice Anita Sumanth directed the Director General of Health Services (DGHS) to put in place a mechanism whereby it should be enough if the home State withholds the educational certificates in order to ensure that the doctor, after completing higher speciality/fellowship courses, returns back and honours the undertaking to serve government hospitals for a specified number of years because of having studied medicine at a very low fee.
The judge ordered that the mechanism should be introduced forthwith for the present academic year. She directed the DGHS to appoint a nodal officer to facilitate the process. The directions were issued while dealing with a batch of cases filed against State government’s insistence on obtaining bank guarantee not only from those who join colleges in other States but also from those who join private colleges within Tamil Nadu.
