NEW DELHI: The city high court has refused to allow a doctor, who is pursuing a super-speciality course, to sit for his end-term examination by condoning his “excessive leaves” on account of contracting Covid-19 while treating patients, saying that the requirements of training and attendance in professional courses of this nature are beyond its remit.
Justice Prateek Jalan dismissed the doctor’s plea for condonation of leaves and said that the court’s decision did not emanate from a lack of gratitude for the service rendered by doctors during the pandemic, but from the limitations under the regulations governing the course.
The petitioner was working with the burns and plastic surgery department of a medical institute, pursuing the three-year M.Ch. Degree course. Since a candidate was permitted to take only a total of 102 days as leave during the three years, the petitioner was rendered ineligible to sit for the end-term examination after he availed 226 days of leave, 194 days being on medical leave due to Covid-19 infection.
The institute told the high court that the applicable regulations, that are the Postgraduate Medical Education Regulations, 2000, by the Medical Council of India as well as its own ordinances, do not provide for any condonation of excess leaves.