Madhya Pradesh HC Issues Notice On Student's Plea Who Completed MBBS From China, Against Increase Of Internship Period To Three Years

The Madhya Pradesh High Court has issued notice to the state government on a medical student's plea who finished MBBS from a Chinese University, challenging an order passed by the MP Medical Council increasing the period of Internship for MBBS students from two years to three years.

A division bench of Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva & Justice Vinay Saraf in its order issued notice to the State, Director Medical Education, National Medical Commission and MP Medical Council and listed the plea on April 24 along with another plea. 

The plea states that the petitioner went to China to study MBBS from Nantong University China and during the fag-end of his course, Covid-19 pandemic struck and therefore, he was forced to come back to India. He completed the last year of his course through Online-mode and after passing the Foreign Medical Graduate (FMG) Examination, he was registered as Foreign Medical Graduate under the National Medical Commission, was attached with Atal Bihar Vajpayee, Government Medical College Vidisha and was allowed to do internship on the basis of the provisional registration.

The plea submits that when the petitioner registered himself, he was informed on March 23, 2023 by MP Medical Council that his internship period will be for a period of two years. It states that keeping this mind, his internship was to get over in March 2025 and he was preparing for the PG medical exams on the assumption that he will be able to appear in NEET (PG) Examination, 2025 after completion of two years of internship as Foreign Medical Graduate students.

The plea claims that for the first time on November 4, 2024 the petitioner was informed that now the internship is for three years. The plea claims that "vide order dated 04.11.2024 the petitioner could understand that, this order has been made with retrospective operation for the students who completed their courses from China during/after Pandemic COVID-19". 

The plea further claims, "Foreign Medical Graduate students are made to suffer for reasons which are difficult to understand but easy to infer, because it was not the mistake of the petitioner but it was the natural calamities or a man made calamity". It states that similarly situated batch mate of the petitioner who completed the course from India have already competed the internship of one year and have joined the Pre-PG courses. 

The plea contends that it is only the M.P. Medical Council which has extended the period up to three years, whereas other medical councils like Delhi Medical Council which is one of the most recognized Medical Council of India has allowed the students to do the internship in a period of only one year and in special cases for a period of two years.

The plea states that with the internship period being increased to three years it would now mean that the petitioner will not be declared as eligible to appear in the Pre-PG examination of 2025, due to "retrospective operation of the order dated 04.11.2024" and the petitioner will be  junior to the students of the same Batch.

The plea seeks a direction to quash the November 4, 2024 order and a further direction to respondents to provide No Objection Certificate and the eligibility certificate to the petitioner for completion of internship period on March 23 and the petitioner be declared eligible for Pre-PG examination. As interim relief the plea seeks stay of the November 2024 order during the pendency of the writ petition.

Case title: Dr. Narayan Raghuvanshi vs. State of MP

Case No: WP 9549/ 2025

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