NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has quashed a regulation banning the migration or transfer of MBBS students between medical colleges, holding it to be “manifestly unreasonable and arbitrary” and violative of the Constitution.
A bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia rejected the National Medical Commission’s (NMC) justification that student migration was prone to misuse, observing that the “mere possibility of abuse cannot be a ground to deny legitimate rights of a citizen”.
The HC struck down Regulation 18 of the Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023, and directed the NMC to frame a “proper policy” permitting migration of students, subject to appropriate conditions.
The order was passed on February 4 while hearing a petition filed by an MBBS student with 40% visual impairment, who had sought migration from Government Medical College, Barmer, to a medical college in Delhi.The bench directed the NMC to take a decision on the petitioner’s transfer request within three weeks.
“What we find is that in the name of maintaining uniformity, standards and integrity, a total prohibition on transfer or migration of a student, the need for which may arise in various situations, including the present case, can’t be said to be reasonable,” the court said.