Mumbai: The Bombay high court has refused to grant relief to a MBBS doctor aspiring to get admission in a post-graduate course by seeking exemption from doing one-year mandatory bond service.
The student, who passed out from a state-run medical college, had sought relief as he wanted to make a third attempt for the post-graduate entra-nce test but could not do so as the rules mandated that he do one-year bond service or pay a penalty before being eligible for the third attempt.
The doctor had prayed for relief saying that he would do the bond service after completing his post-graduate studies.
A division bench of Justice Ranjit More and Justice Anuja Prabhudessai was hearing a writ petition filed by a doctor who completed his studies with mandatory internship in 2013.
The doctor had sought the quashing and setting aside of a 2011 government notification and certain conditions mentioned in the 2018 NEET prospectus, as it was violative of article 14 of the Constitution of India.
The petition was prompted after the doctor was refused a chance to appear for the PGM-CET a third time after he failed in the first two attempts. The conditions stipulated that he would have to do a year of bond service before becoming eligible for the third and further attempts.
The doctor claimed that while doctors graduating from private medical colleges had no such conditions, his rights were violated.
However, the additional government pleader said that as per the rules, the doctor had availed of subsidised cost of his MBBS education and hence he was bound to follow the rules mandated by the state.
Also as the doctors from private medical colleges had not benefited from any subsidy hence the bond service was not mandatory on them.
After hearing both sides, the court accepted the state’s contention and refused to grant any relief to the doctor and dismissed the petition.
