NEW DELHI: The Madras High Court today said that comprehensive reading is required on the issue of norms to be followed for admission to post-graduate medical courses in Tamil Nadu. It said the issue of incentive marks and reservation for in-service government doctors in PG medical admissions and the latest regulations of Medical Council of India (MCI) needed to be looked into comprehensively. A division bench comprising justices Huluvadi G Ramesh and RMT Teekaa Raman made the observations on a batch of appeals filed by the in-service candidates challenging a single judge's ruling related to grant of incentive marks to government doctors serving in remote areas.
The single judge had on April 17 held that incentive marks for in-service candidates should be awarded only based on the MCI's Post Graduate Medical Education Regulations 2000 and not on the basis of the prospectus issued by the state government.
The petitioners have submitted that as per the state prospectus, in-service candidates serving in areas other than remote and hilly locations were also eligible for incentive marks based on the category of the places. The single judge's order would mean these in-service candidates would not get the incentive marks, they argued. A comprehensive hearing needs to be given to the issue pertaining to allocation of 25 per cent of the PG seats to general merit candidates and 25 per cent towards in-service candidates based on the areas as notified in the prospectus issued by the state government, the bench said.
Noting that disposing of the matter involving complex issues at the stage of admission would be improper, it directed the counsels for the parties to complete their pleadings at the earliest and seek an appropriate date for early hearing during vacation as the last date for Post Graduate course admissions was fast approaching. It further said the counsel for the parties were at liberty to request the Chief Justice to constitute a special bench for hearing the matter during vacation.
As per guidelines in existence, government doctors working in rural areas and hilly and remote localities shall be allotted one and two marks per year of service respectively. However, MCI has said those serving in remote and difficult areas must be awarded 10 per cent of their National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) scores for every year of service, subject to a maximum of 30 per cent.