Foreign medical graduates will not get eligibility certificate if they score less, orders Madras HC
New Delhi : Bad news for foreign medical graduates! The Madras High Court has restrained Medical Council of India (MCI) to issue the eligibility certificates to students who scores low pass percentage in screening tests or Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE). The foreign medical graduates, who score less than 80 per cent in the qualifying Class 12 exam, will not get eligibility certificates.
Madras High Court has ordered that the minimum qualifying marks for such candidates should be raised from 50 per cent to at least 80 per cent. In the past 10 years, only 15 to 25 per cent of doctors with foreign degrees managed to clear the mandatory screening test,' said Justice N Kirubakaran in the court.
What is MCI exam
MCI exam, also known as screening test known as the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE) which is mandatory for foreign medical graduates and is conducted by the National Board of Examination to practice the profession in India. According to PTI, Madras High Court wondered that when students who secured more than 95 per cent in the qualifying examination were unable to get seats for pursuing medicine in India, then how the candidates with 50 per cent marks in the qualifying exam could be allowed to get admission in foreign medical colleges.
As per the Times of India report, Justice Kirubakaran passed the order on a petition by a foreign medical degree holder, Thamarai Selvan who was seeking directions to the MCI for issuing a certificate of provisional registration to enable him to undergo the Compulsory Rotatory Residential Internship.
During the hearing, counsel for MCI submitted that before the introduction of National Entrance cum Eligibility Test (NEET), minimum marks prescribed by the commission was 50 per cent in physics, chemistry and biology collectively to get an eligibility certificate.
