Medical Colleges Charge Rs 1 Crore But Won't Pay Stipend To MBBS Interns? Either Pay Them Or Don't Have Internship: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Monday (February 6) expressed concerns at the complaints of MBBS interns that medical colleges are not adequately paying them stipend.A bench comprising Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Prasanna B Varale was hearing a batch of writ petitions filed by medical students.Justice Dhulia orally voiced his discontent with how medical colleges are charging such hefty fees and are not prepared to pay the stipend.“What kind of medical colleges are they? They are charging one crore, I do not know how much they are charging for postgraduate students and they are not prepared to give the stipend also.”“Either you pay them, or you don't have the internship.,” Justice Dhulia stated. It may be recalled that this is the same matter where the Top Court had directed the National Medical Commission to respond to a complaint that 70 percent of medical colleges do not pay any stipend or are not paying the minimum set stipend to doctors doing MBBS internships.One among the writ petitions was filed by students of the Army College of Medical Sciences. In its last year's order dated 15 September, the Court directed the ACMS to start paying Rs.25,000 per month as a stipend to the medical interns. Today, Senior Advocate Colonel (Retired) R Balasubramanium, appearing for the ACMS, asserted that the college is not run by the Government or by the army. He submitted that the same is being run by the Army Welfare Education Society and is registered under the Societies Registration Act. The senior counsel pointed out that the institution is not receiving any governmental aid. On being asked if the petitioners are getting any stipend, petitioner's advocate Tanvi Dubey replied, “for next batch from October onwards. Although they had joined from April, they were paid only from October onwards.” Pursuant to this, Justice Dhulia asked the Counsel appearing for the Army College of Medical Sciences to pay the petitioners. “Either you pay them or you don't have the internship.,” Justice Dhulia stated. It may be noted that earlier, the bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud directed the National Medical Commission(NMC) to file a tabulated chart and explain (i) whether the statement regarding the lack of stipend for medical interns is true and (ii) what steps the NMC is taking to ensure compliance with the norm of paying internship stipend. Pointing this out, Advocate for one of the petitioners argued that the NMC has not completely complied with this direction. However, the NMC's counsel fervently refuted it. He averred that 17 States have responded and are paying. The Court asked the parties to file relevant documents and listed the matter after four weeks. It may be noted that other similar matters have been tagged with this main matter. For instance, a writ petition filed by the foreign medical graduates (FMGs) challenging non-payment of stipend to them has also been tagged. This plea was filed by the students, who are currently undergoing internship at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government Medical College, Vidisha. Last month, the Division bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and Sandeep Mehta issued a notice in this petition. Case Title: Abhishek Yadav and others v. Army College of Medical Sciences | W.P.(C) No. 730/2022

Medical Colleges Charge Rs 1 Crore But Won't Pay Stipend To MBBS Interns? Either Pay Them Or Don't Have Internship: Supreme Court

Gyanvi Khanna

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