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Round off Class XII marks and allow qualified doctors to register
The Delhi High Court has ruled that
Medical Council of India cannot deny permanent registration to a
qualified medical practitioner just because he/she missed 50 per cent
marks in Class XII examination by a fraction of less than 0.5 per cent.
In other words, the score of anyone who secured more than 49.5 %
average in Physics, Chemistry and Biology in Class XII should be
rounded off to 50%.
The biggest beneficiaries of the order would be lakhs of aspiring
doctors, who failed to join undergraduate medical courses in India
after narrowly missing 50% marks in 10+2, went abroad and qualified to
become a medical practitioner.
But only those students would be eligible who went abroad before March
15, 2002, as after that to regulate the grant of registration to those
who completed degree abroad, the MCI made it mandatory for all students
to first obtain an eligibility certificate from it before proceeding
abroad to study medicine. For it 50% marks is a must and the round- off
rule is not applicable. "This court is of the view that the petitioner
is right in contending that 49.7% marks obtained by him should be
considered equivalent to 50% by applying the principle of rounding
off," ruled Justice S. Muralidhar, giving relief to Ravinder Singh and
imposing a cost of Rs 5,000 on the MCI. Mr. Singh, who missed the cut
off by 0.3% flew to Russia, where he completed MD (Physician) course
(equivalent to MBBS), in November 2000.
Singh's lawyer Manoj Goel said on coming back to India, his client was
denied permanent registration as medical practitioner as he secured
only 49.7%.
But MCI told the court that "rounding off” was not permissible and
minimum qualifying marks of 50% was mandatory as otherwise it could
"dilute the standards".
Citing a 2005 Supreme Court ruling in a judge appointment quota case,
the judge said, "The rule of rounding off is based on logic and common
sense. If part is one half or more, its value shall be increased to one
and if part is less than half then its value shall be ignored."
Source: Hindustan
Times (New Delhi, February 24, 2010)
