New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned the petitions filed by Ukraine-returned Indian medical students seeking inclusion in MBBS courses and the next hearing on those pleas will be taken up for hearing on November 29. The Centre informed the bench of Justices Surya Kant and Vikram Nath that it has used its departments to accommodate Ukraine-returned students in the MBBS course, informing further that it will not be able to take first and fourth-year students as it would disrupt the system. Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Centre, told the court that the government did not consider the petition adversarial, and has done what it could to accommodate the students.
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Senior Advocate Maneka Guruswamy, representing the students, told the court that the latter have not been served by the Centre. The petitioners come under the category of victims of war, she further argued. Sr Adv Gopal Sankaranarayana said students just wanted a one-time measure, adding that third-year students had left for China. Meanwhile, the Centre further informed the top court that out of a total of 15,783 Indian students, who had enrolled in Ukrainian medical universities, 14,973 are currently undergoing online classes, which have been conducted by the universities.
"It is submitted that information has been obtained from the Ministry of External Affairs that a total of 15,783 Indian students are enrolled in various medical universities of Ukraine, out of which 14,973 students are undergoing online classes conducted by medical universities of Ukraine concerned and 640 students are undergoing offline mode of education in Ukraine" in an affidavit, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said. "In all, 170 students enrolled with Ukrainian universities are pursuing their education at partner universities in other countries under academic mobility programme," it also said.
