Bengaluru: A single judge bench of Justice S Sunil DuttYadav of the Karnataka High Court has dismissed a batch of petitions filed by undergraduate medical students seeking a grant of five grace marks for the exams conducted in January, which would help them pass their examination. The primary contention of the students was that under the Regulations on Graduate Medical Education (Amendment) 2019, provision for grace was available and the benefit of the same should be extended to them. However, the Guidelines issued by the Undergraduate Medical Education Board, (UGMEB) formed under the National Medical Council Act, on 01.08.2023 did away with the award of grace marks. The students claimed the benefit under the 2019 Regulations ought to prevail and the students ought to be given grace marks as the regulations framed will have precedence over the Guidelines.
Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences opposed the plea contending that the Guidelines dated 01.08.2023 framed by UGMEB must be construed to be passed under power conferred under the Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023, and accordingly, the contention that the 2023 Guidelines trace themselves to the 2019 Regulations, cannot be accepted. The bench said, “It is inherent in any system of education that evaluation standards and methodologies change and such an aspect is within the sole discretion of the academic bodies incharge of maintaining such standards.”
It noted the 2019 Regulations are stated to be applicable with respect to the batches admitted in MBBS Course from Academic Year 2019-20 onwards. However, by virtue of the NMC Act, 2019, the Medical Council of India Act, 1956 came to be repealed, and the Medical Council of India, stood dissolved. The new set of regulations called the “Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023” came to be notified on 02.06.2023 and the 2023 Guidelines provide for internal assessment and university examinations. While specifically providing that there shall be no grace marks to be considered for passing an examination Court noted that Regulation 19, provides for minimum standards of requirements and has prescribed that the Medical Institutions shall follow the Minimum Standards of Requirements (MSR) for undergraduate medical education prescribed by UGMEB, from time to time.
The court ordered, “In the present cases, the relief is as regards the award of grace marks for the examination in January 2024. By such time, the Regulations of 2023 and the UGMEB Guidelines were already in force. If that were to be so, the question of awarding grace marks does not arise as provided for under the guidelines.” It added, “It is but a natural process of any education system to constantly re-invent the course and examination patterns in order to produce high quality professionals.”
Meanwhile the bench while rejecting the petition said, “It cannot be stated that the standards of Medical Education or evaluation process as existing on the date of admission of the students would continue till the end of the course nor can there be any vested right for continuation of the system of evaluation as it was at the time the students had joined the course.”
