The Supreme Court on Friday suggested the Centre to set up a web portal to coordinate the process of sending the Indian medical students who returned from Ukraine to foreign universities, reported Live Law.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in February, 20,000 Indian students studying in the country had returned to India. Of this, 18,000 are medical students.
A bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and Sudhanshu Dhulia was hearing a batch of pleas filed by some of these Indian medical students to continue their studies in India.
At Friday’s hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the court that last week National Medical Commission had decided to recognise academic mobility programme offered by Ukraine for Indian students returning from the European country.
The academic mobility programme is a temporary relocation scheme to study at other foreign universities in different countries.
Under the National Medical Commission Act, students studying in foreign medical colleges are required to complete their education and obtain a degree from a single university only. However, under the mobility programme, the degree will be awarded to the Indian medical students by the parent Ukrainian university.
Mehta told the court that the Centre has liaised with some countries for the programme.
“Except these countries, other countries not compatible,” he said. “Can’t insist others countries with our view.”
The bench asked how the students will find out which foreign universities are allowing them to enrol and complete their studies. To this, the solicitor general said that a liasoning officer has been appointed.
The court, however, said that appointing one officer might not be enough.
“It’s better to have a transparent system,” Justice Gupta said. “The Government of India has resources to find out which countries have so many seats. Give them options, transparent options. You develop a portal. Develop a transparent system.”
The court told the Centre to provide information like number of seats available and course fee in the web portal.
On Thursday, the Centre had told the Supreme Court that medical student who returned from Ukraine cannot be accommodated in Indian universities since there is no such provision in the National Medical Commission Act, 2019.
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