HC to set up special Bench to hear PG medical admission issue

The Madras High Court on Friday decided to set up a special vacation bench to adjudicate upon a plea to fix the norms for admission to the post-graduate medical courses in Tamil Nadu.

When the plea was made to the bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar, the chief justice readily acceded to it and assured the counsel that a special bench would be established to adjudicate the issue during the vacation starting from May 2.

A bench of justices Huluvadi G Ramesh and RMT Teekaa Raman had yesterday said the issue of incentive marks and reservation for in-service government doctors and latest regulations of Medical Council of India (MCI) needed to be looked into comprehensively. Making the observations on the need for a comprehensive examination of the issue, the bench had also suggested that the chief justice be requested to constitute a special bench for the purpose.

The bench of Justice Ramesh had made the observation while hearing a bunch of appeals by in-service candidates challenging a ruling by a single-judge bench on according incentive marks to the government doctors serving in remote areas.

Accordingly, the counsel for the petitioners today mentioned the issue regarding formation of special bench before the chief justice, who acceded to the request.

As per the state norms, all doctors in the government medical service were eligible for one mark per year of service with a cap of 10 marks and those employed in four notified difficult and remote or hilly areas were eligible for two marks per year of service.

But the MCI regulations earmarked 10 per cent of an in- service candidate's National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) PG mark as incentive per year of service with a maximum of 30 per cent.

The single judge had on April 17 upheld the MCI norms 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 bench had yesterday directed the counsel for the parties to complete their pleadings at the earliest.