MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday stayed a portion of the amended minimum standard requirements (MSR) – published by the Post Graduate Medical Education Board (PGMEB) of the National Medical Commission (NMC) – which imposed a condition on the faculty members of PG medical institutions to maintain a minimum attendance of 75% out of 300 annual working days.
Justice Hemant Chandangoudar passed the interim order on a joint petition filed by two assistant professors and a senior resident from the government medical colleges in Madurai and Sivaganga respectively. The trio sought a direction to quash Clause xii of Para 2 of the amended MSR published in February, which imposed the above condition.
The petitioners said that the PGMSR published in 2024 does not specify the total number of annual working days, as it differs in each state and it was left to the respective states to decide.
However, the board has now arbitrarily fixed the total working days as 300 across the country, and has mandated that the faculty members maintain minimum attendance of 225 days, they claimed. Pointing out that the total annual working days in TN is around 240 days, they said the amendment has led to a situation where the faculty members are forced to maintain 92-94% attendance.
Moreover, government servants have statutory leave such as casual leave. Due to the above condition, however, faculty members of government medical institutions would not be able to avail of it, they highlighted.
Hearing the plea, Justice Chandangoudar said the Clause xii is stayed insofar as it requires the faculty members to fulfil 75% attendance out of 300 working days. However, they are required to fulfil 75% attendance out of 238.5 days, he added, and adjourned the case to June 8.
