Hyderabad : Writ petition filed by doctors doing their postgraduate (PG) and who have claimed exemption from serving the government after completing their PG courses was rejected by the Telangana High Court. The petitioners were accepted into the PG programme in 2019 after they signed bonds promising to work for the Telangana government for a year following the successful completion of their individual postgraduate programmes.
The petitioners said that the amendment to the Telangana Medical Practitioners Registration(Amendment Act, 2013) in2018 waived the obligations for providing rural medical care as mandated by the Act so as to get their names register with the Telangana State Medical Council. They argued that even though they had signed the bonds in 2019, they had to be exempted from performing the rural service requirement.
The State however argued that the changes to the Telangana Medical Practitioners Registration Act, 1968, do not in any way affect the state’s ability to require rural service as a condition of residency and that the aforementioned Act only pertains to doctor registrations and not PG study.
Justice MummineniSudeer Kumar rejected the argument and supported the State’s position while also taking into account that over 890 applicants reported to work in rural regions and that just seven petitioners had appeared before the court.