Fee to issue internship completion certificate illegal: Kerala HC
The Kerala High Court has ruled that charging fees for internship completion certificates for foreign medical graduates is illegal. The court also affirmed that these graduates are entitled to stipends equivalent to those received by Indian medical graduates.
Why it matters
This decision protects the rights of foreign-trained medical professionals and ensures equitable treatment within the Indian healthcare training system.
The Kerala High Court has Monday observed that the demand for fee to issue internship completion certificate to a foreign medical graduate was illegal and the graduate was entitled to stipend for the duration of his compulsory rotatory medical internship (CRMI).
Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas directed the General Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram, to issue the completion certificate to a medical graduate without levying any fee, and forward his claim for stipend to the competent authority at the earliest.
The court recalled previous cases where it had observed that the stipend for the period of CRMI undergone by a doctor should be paid by the State. Accordingly, the competent State authority was directed to process the stipend claim and disburse the amount within three months of receipt of the application.
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