Karnataka HC to hear challenge moved by PG doctors against judgment upholding compulsory one-year urban service

The Karnataka High Court will hear tomorrow a plea challenging a state government notification directing one-year compulsory training in urban areas for postgraduate and diploma medical students, after the completion of their course..The notification was issued by the state government on July 23. The High Court had issued notice in the plea challenging this notification earlier this month..A Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka had issued notice to the state government, the Director of Public Services, Medical Council of India, the Karnataka Medical Council and Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences..The plea filed by 281 students contends that they had secured the seats under the private, management and NRI quotas and are paying huge tuition fees, ranging from Rs 6 lakh to Rs 75 lakh every year. The plea goes on to state that the one-year compulsory service was neither mentioned in the brochure, nor were the appellants made aware of the pending writ petitions relating to the said issue. ."Infact their brochure made a mention of compulsory service by the government seat students for 3 years, which actually becomes a reassurance that no compulsory service was required from the Management students. Hence, they are liable to be made amenable to the impugned enactment and they have to be exempted from its purview", states the appeal..This apart, the plea also seeks to challenge the order of a Single judge Bench passed on August 8, 2019. By this order, the High Court had upheld the validity of Section 4 of the Karnataka Compulsory Service Training by Candidates Completed Medical Course (KCS) Act, 2012, which called for the compulsory one-year urban service..It was further stated that as per Section 3 of the Act, candidates are required to undergo one-year training in rural government hospitals after the completion of the MBBS course. Moreover, Section 4 of the Act was amended in 2017 and the same envisages one-year compulsory training in urban areas after the completion of the PG course.Thus, the doctors have prayed for the quashing of Section 4, stating that it negates the very purpose of the enactment..The appeal further points out that the Single Judge had wrongly granted legislative competence to the State on the subject of registration of the degree conferred on the doctors, which enables them to start professional practice. The impugned Act was brought under Entry 26 of List III, and Entries 6 and 41 of List II. .With reference to the cases that the Single Judge relied upon, the plea said that "there was not a whisper in the said judgments about Management category seats/students regarding compulsory service"..The appellants have further made it clear that the challenge is only against bringing them under the provision of the KCS Act, and that they have no issues serving under the Disaster Management Act..On these grounds, the plea seeks to set aside both the notification dated July 23 as well as the judgment which upheld the validity of Section 4 of the KCS Act..The matter is expected to be heard on October 22, by a Division Bench headed by Justice BV Nagarathna. .[Read plea here]