The Madras High Court has refused to interfere with a decision taken by the National Medical Commission (NMC) not to allow a student who had pursued medical education in China to write the screening test, Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE) required to be cleared before commencing practice here, because she had not studied English as a separate subject during her higher secondary classes.
Justice N. Anand Venkatesh dismissed a writ petition filed by a woman candidate on the ground that court could not sit in judgment over the stipulations prescribed by an expert body. Though it was argued that the petitioner had studied higher secondary in English medium and she also has 7.5 out of 9 in International English Language Testing System (IELTS), the judge refused to allow her plea.
“The individual opinion of a judge cannot come in the way while deciding cases of this nature and this court has to necessarily satisfy itself as to whether a candidate fulfils the qualification prescribed in the regulation. The law on this issue is well settled. In the result, there is no ground to interfere with the impugned (under challenge) communication dated June 14, 2021 issued by NMC,” the judge wrote.
It was brought to the notice of the court that the petitioner was an overseas citizen of India. She had studied under Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) stream here up to Class X in Kodaikanal and then pursued her higher secondary course in Sri Lanka after her family moved there. After completing schooling, she pursued her MBBS course, also in English medium, from Sichuan University in China.
However, the NMC refused to issue an eligibility certificate to her to appear for FMGE conducted by National Testing Agency on the sole ground that she had not studied English as a separate subject during higher secondary education and hence she had approached the court. Initially, the court passed an interim order permitting her to write the screening test on June 18 subject to the result of the writ petition.
When the matter was taken up final hearing, the judge recorded the detailed submissions made by NMC against the petitioner’s plea and dismissed her case.
