SC: Exemption from Rural Service Can Be Asked on Being a Private Medical College Student?

A vacation bench of the Supreme Court comprising justices PS Narasimha and Sanjay Karol heard a petition filed by five MBBS students who are graduating from private seats of a deemed university in Karnataka and who sought exemption from rural service. The bench queried the students’ counsel whether students of private institutions have no obligation to contribute to nation building.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday, while hearing a petition by five MBBS students, posed a query can a medical student, who is about to graduate, seek exemption from rendering one-year public rural service just because they studied at a private medical college?

A vacation bench comprising justices PS Narasimha and Sanjay Karol was hearing a petition filed by five MBBS students who are graduating from private seats of a deemed university in Karnataka.

While issuing notice to the Karnataka government and others on the plea by students’, the bench observed, "Just because you go and study at a private institution, you have an exemption from working in rural areas?".

"You walk up and down India and work in different rural areas. That is such a beautiful thing to do," the bench observed.

It further queried the students’ counsel whether students who study in private institutions have no obligation to contribute to nation building.

The plea, filed through advocate Meenakshi Kalra, sought a direction to the Karnataka Medical Council to accept the permanent registration of the petitioners.

The plea contended that the Karnataka government had enacted the Karnataka Compulsory Service Training by Candidates Completed Medical Courses Act, 2012 and subsequently enacted the Karnataka Compulsory Service Training by Candidates Completed Medical Course Rules, 2015.

The plea said the combined effect of the Act and the Rules, "mandates that every MBBS graduate, every post-graduate (Diploma or Degree) and every super specialty candidate who have pursued their course of study either in a government university or on a government seat in a private/deemed university, must fulfil a mandatory obligation to render one year of compulsory public rural service prior to being eligible for permanent registration with the Karnataka Medical Council".

The petitioners’ sought a direction to the Commissionerate, Health and Family Welfare Services, Government of Karnataka, to issue them the required no objection certificate (NOC) without subjecting them to swear an affidavit of compulsory rural service.

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