Recently, a single bench of the Karnataka High Court comprising Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum issued a notice to the State Government and concerned authorities in a batch of petitions challenging the Compulsory Rural Service.
The petitions have challenged the State Government's June 8 ,2021, notification which asked the 2021 MBBS graduates securing Government seats to register online for the Compulsory Rural Service under provisions of the Karnataka Compulsory Service to Candidates Completed Medical Courses Act 2012 (Compulsory Act).
A petition filed by Dr. Prathana N through advocates Manik B T of Thiru and Thiru Chambers stated that in the case of Bushree Anital Aleem the validity of the said law came to be upheld. Notwithstanding, it was declared that it will be applied prospectively and not retrospectively to students who got admission after 24.07.2015.
Further, in 2019 National Medical Commission Act was established and thus there is a paradigm shift that took place in medical education and the State Governments have lost their rights of regulating the admissions of medical colleges.
Further, it is stated that the notification dated June 6, 2021, stems out of the Compulsory Act which is a nonest law considering the NMC Act.
Another petition filed by Senior Advocate K G Raghvan stated that "Having regard to the content of the National Medical Commission Act the provisions of 2012 act (Karnataka Compulsory Service Training by Candidates Completed Medical Courses Act, 2012 and Rules of 2015) is repugnant to the 2019 Act. If the 2012 Act is inoperative then the notification dated June 8, also goes.
He also stated that “Before the 2019 Act, medical education had become fragmented, each state was doing whatever it wanted. The medical council was afflicted by political interference. What suffered was medical education and infrastructure, it is to take care, this national law is made by the Parliament to ensure there is uniformity in all states."
Advocate N Ketty showing up for the NMC notified the court that there have been orders passed earlier by various benches of the high court in which the Act has been upheld, Similarly, certain categories of students who have completed their course till academic years 2017-18 have been released from doing the compulsory service on grounds that they were not notified about the compulsory service clause, by the colleges. He stated that he will place on record the previous orders for the perusal of the court and help the court on the same.
