HC: State PG docs must work in govt hosps for 2 years

HC: State PG docs must work in govt hosps for 2 years

Chennai:  07.10.2020

The Madras high court on Tuesday upheld mandatory state service for all postgraduate medical students in Tamil Nadu admitted under the All India Quota (AIQ). As per admission prospectus, all PG students must compulsorily serve two years in government hospitals. “The monetary investment by the state in this sector may be tremendous, but it is for a laudable purpose and the investment is just not pure business. The idea of compelling pass outs to serve the state hospitals is neither unjust nor against the students,” said a bench of Chief Justice A P Sahi and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy. TNN

‘People able to get best med attention’

It subserves a benevolent public purpose, namely that the people of the state are able to receive the best of medical attention,” the bench said.

There is no material difference between the status of students occupying the state seats (who are also bound by compulsory service condition) and AIQ seats, in as much as they enjoy the educational facilities at par with each other, with the same subsidies and the same expenses being borne by the state government, the judges added. The bench also made it clear that candidates who have not been offered appointment within two years from the date of completion of the course would be entitled to release their certificates accordingly and are not bound by the condition.

The court passed the order while setting aside an order passed by a single judge dated October 1, 2018 quashing the condition for compulsory government service in the prospectus for PG medical admission.

Allowing the appeal moved by the Tamil Nadu government, the court added that the state spends money, not on gambling with unqualified people, but on those who are best suited for the job. “The directive principles of state policy oblige the state to take care of health and nutrition of its citizens and public health is a state subject. Provincial governments are, therefore, constitutionally obligated to render its citizens the best of health caretakers and subsidising medical education for the best amongst the lot is a major step in organising the best of health services,” the court said.