New Delhi: The National Medical Commission (NMC) has taken note of a concerning trend wherein 972 students pursued MBBS studies abroad without obtaining the requisite eligibility certificate. The commission has now issued a stern ultimatum, granting these students a 10-day window to rectify their omission by submitting applications for the eligibility certificate. Failure to comply within the stipulated timeframe will result in the summarily rejection of their applications, warns the NMC.
The commission has made public a comprehensive list of candidates with pending applications, which includes their names, father’s names, and application numbers. In an official notice, the NMC conveyed, “It is observed that applicants whose name is mentioned in Annexure-I have proceeded abroad without obtaining an Eligibility Certificate. Therefore, it has been decided by the Board to give 10 days time to all such applicants (Annexure-I) to submit their applications in the eligibility portal of NMC. In case the applicants whose name is mentioned in Annexure-I do not fulfill the deficiency or do not submit the applications within 10 days from the date of publication of this notice, the applications will be summarily rejected.”
This development follows the NMC’s October invitation for applications for the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE) 2023 eligibility certificate. The Ethics and Medical Registration Board (EMRB) of the NMC scrutinized the applications and identified certain deficiencies. The commission, in response, directed the attention of students to the guidelines outlined in the Indian Medical Council Act 1956. According to the Act, “A person who is a citizen of India shall not, after such date as may be specified by the Central Government under sub-section (3), be eligible to get admission to obtain a medical qualification granted by any medical institution in any foreign country without obtaining an eligibility certificate issued to him by the Council. In case any such person obtains such qualification without obtaining such eligibility certificate, he shall not be eligible to appear in the screening test.”
The NMC emphasized that the necessity for an eligibility certificate for studying abroad was instituted after the declaration of the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) UG 2019 result. Qualifying the NEET exam has been made mandatory for both Indian and Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) students seeking admission to MBBS programs in foreign institutions.
