PG medical aspirants can submit sureties within 3 months, State tells HC

The State government on Monday told the Madras High Court that the Directorate of Medical Education (DME) shall grant three months time for those who had secured admission in postgraduate degree and diploma courses in medicine to submit sureties from two government employees each along with personal bonds for ₹40 lakh and ₹20 lakh respectively.

Advocate General Vijay Narayan made the submission before a Division Bench of Justices S. Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad who wondered what would happen to the medical seats if students fail to submit the sureties. “It would be a colossal waste if the seats go vacant. It shall not be in the interest of the State to let them go vacant,” Justice Prasad said.

Later, the judges asked the A-G to submit by Monday the details of the number of candidates who had secured PG admissions this year and the number who had submitted sureties. They also wanted to know the number of government medical officer vacancies so that a direction could be issued to the State to fill up all those vacancies at the earliest.

The details were called for during the hearing of a public interest litigation petition filed by advocate T.K. Saravanan who had accused some government employees of demanding huge amount of money from the candidates to provide sureties though a majority of them decline such requests due to fear of facing the music if the candidates do not comply with bond conditions.

The petitioner said the government had made it mandatory for MBBS graduates to execute bonds in order to compel them to serve the government for two years, after completing the PG diplomas/degrees, if their services were required.

Such a stipulation had been created to ensure that specialist doctors did not shy away from serving in rural areas despite being educated at State cost.

Stating that he had no issues with insistence on execution of bonds and obtaining sureties from family members, the petitioner said the demand for surety from two permanent government employees was a harsh and severe condition that could prevent the economically and socially disadvantaged students from pursuing higher education.

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