Cuttack, July 3 — In a significant relief to a bond-bound government doctor, the Odisha High Court has directed the State health authorities to issue a no-objection certificate (NOC), enabling her to pursue a fellowship in Musculoskeletal (MSK) Radiology at Ganga Hospital, Coimbatore.
The directive came after the court found that the doctor, currently serving her post-PG bond service as a senior resident in the radiology department of SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack, was being unfairly denied the NOC despite no such restriction existing in the bond she had signed in 2020.
Justice Aditya Kumar Mohapatra, heading the bench, ordered the State to issue the NOC within one week of receiving the court’s judgment.
The petitioner approached the High Court after the Directorate of Medical Education and Training (DMET), Odisha, rejected her NOC request on April 10, 2025, citing that the MSK Radiology fellowship was not listed among NMC-approved courses under a new government resolution dated January 29, 2024.
However, the court ruled that since the petitioner had executed her bond based on a previous 2017 resolution, the subsequent changes introduced in 2021 and 2024 could not be applied retrospectively.
“The petitioner cannot be compelled to abide by conditions introduced in resolutions passed after she executed her bond,” observed the bench, citing the Supreme Court’s decision in the Association of Medical Superspeciality Aspirants and Residents case. The court emphasized that doctors are bound only by the terms of the bond they sign — in this case, the one dated June 20, 2020.
Declaring the rejection letter “arbitrary and unsustainable in law,” the High Court quashed the April 2025 order and reaffirmed that the petitioner had full legal right to pursue higher studies not restricted by her original bond terms.
This ruling is expected to have wider implications for other government medical officers facing similar hurdles due to retrospective application of policy changes.
