Kerala HC sets aside state govt order stipulating internship fee for foreign medical graduates
Kochi: High court has set aside the state govt's order stipulating an internship fee for foreign medical graduates (FMGs).
The bench of Justice N Nagaresh further observed that, as the National Medical Commission (NMC) Act mandates stipend payment to medical interns for their service, the state is not justified in levying an internship fee from medical graduates.
The Court was considering a batch of petitions filed by FMGs challenging the GO dated April 3, 2025, issued by the health department additional secretary, which directed them to pay Rs 5,000 per month as an internship fee for the Compulsory Rotating Medical Internship (CRMI). The petitioners, who secured medical degrees from institutions outside India, contended that the NMC, which has the power under the Act to make policy regarding the internship, provides no option for the state to levy any fee for CRMI and had already directed that no such fee should be charged.
The state opposed the arguments and submitted that the NMC cannot restrain state govts from levying an internship fee on Indian or foreign medical graduates. In 2020, the state had fixed the internship fee at Rs 10,000 per month for FMGs, and, in view of directions from a HC division bench in a previous petition, the govt had refixed the fee at Rs 5,000 per month.
Meanwhile, the NMC clarified that it had taken a policy decision directing that no internship fee shall be collected from students undergoing CRMI. Accordingly, HC set aside the impugned GO mandating the internship fee for FMGs.
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