CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has directed the state health authorities to issue a No Objection Certificate (NOC) to Dr Smruti Snigdha Sahoo, a medical officer in the district health service (DHS) cadre, allowing her to pursue a fellowship in musculoskeletal (MSK) radiology at Ganga Hospital, Coimbatore.
Dr Sahoo, who is currently serving her post-PG bond service as a senior resident in the radiology department at SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack, had approached the high court after the director of medical education and training, Odisha, declined her request for an NOC via a letter dated April 10, 2025.
The state’s rejection was based on revised resolutions issued in 2021 and 2024, which allegedly restricted higher studies during the bond period. Dr Sahoo, however, argued that her bond-executed in June 2020 under the government resolution dated February 3, 2017, contained no such prohibition.
Considering her case, Justice Aditya Kumar Mohapatra ruled in her favour, stating that the 2021 and 2024 resolutions cannot be applied retrospectively to her case. “The petitioner is bound by the bond dated 20.06.2020. Furthermore, the 2024 Resolution is not applicable to the petitioner. As such, the impugned rejection order dated 10.04.2025 is highly arbitrary and unsustainable in law,” Justice Mohapatra noted.
The high court emphasised that since Dr Sahoo had neither signed nor consented to the modified terms introduced in later resolutions, those could not be imposed on her.
The court ordered the authorities to issue the NOC within a week of the judgment.