In Brief
A student who could not secure admission to an Indian medical college due to a lower NEET score sought to study medicine abroad but challenged the National Medical Commission's Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate and Compulsory Rotating Medical Internship Regulations as unconstitutional and arbitrary. The Supreme Court upheld both regulations as valid exercises of the NMC's statutory power. The Court held that prescribing minimum standards—including a 54-month course duration, mandatory 12-month internship in the same foreign institution, and compulsory internship in India—does not violate Articles 14, 19(1)(g), or 21. These requirements serve the legitimate state interest in ensuring only properly qualified doctors practice in India. The Court rejected arguments that the regulations were extra-territorial or discriminatory, noting that foreign medical graduates must be tested on the Indian population before independent practice. The appeals were dismissed.
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