SC posts for November 1 Ukraine students' plea on resuming their medical education in India 

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday posted for November 1 pleas filed by Ukraine returnees seeking permission to continue their medical education in India.

Senior Advocate Rajiv Dutta appearing for the students submitted before a bench led by Justice Hemant Gupta that a meeting had to be convened to take a call on the issue.

“We’re waiting for something positive may come. They have been informing but nothing is coming through. This is the situation where we need their help,” he added. 

Earlier while appreciating the Centre’s stand of introducing the “Academic Mobility Programme” that would give almost 20,000 Ukraine returnees a chance to continue their medical education in alternate universities of other compatible countries, it asked the Centre to develop a portal specifying requirements such as fee structure of college and seats available in these universities.

“You can develop a portal, and give them the options so that the students can be transferred. We acknowledge that India can’t accommodate 20,000 students and they will have to study outside India. It should be transparently available so that they can take up the course," a bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and Sudhanshu Dhulia noted even as they pointed out that one liasoning officer will go crazy dealing with the workload. Hence, the necessity to make it clear what is the fee, the colleges available, how many seats are available and the name of the college.

In its response, the Health Ministry submitted that Ukraine returnees with “poor merit” could not be allowed to continue their education in India. The Centre said that they will have to utilise the academic mobility programme proposed by Ukrainian universities that have already been “no objectioned” by National Medical Commission and Centre. It was also said that the programme would do justice to most of the aggrieved students and also protect the career of nearly 20,000 Indian students who had to be evacuated from the war-torn country.