Working on proposals to help Ukraine returnees: Centre to Supreme Court

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New Delhi, September 23

The Centre on Friday told the Supreme Court that it was working on the court’s suggestions to help medical students who were forced to flee Ukraine due to the Russian invasion.

“In terms of the last order, we have written to the secretaries of the Ministry of External Affairs as well as Health Ministry,” an advocate representing the government told a Bench led by Justice Hemant Gupta.

As one of the advocates said that final-year medical students could be allowed online education, the Bench said, “We are not saying anything. We will pass a comprehensive order.” It posted the matter for further hearing on October 11.

Noting that India couldn’t accommodate 20,000 medical students forced to flee Ukraine due to Russian invasion, the Supreme Court on September 16 said the government could use its resources to help them choose compatible foreign universities to further pursue their education.

It had suggested that the Central Government should create a portal containing details of foreign universities where these students could complete their education in terms of the academic mobility programme of the National Medical Commission (NMC).

Asking the Centre to develop a mechanism to enable students to choose other compatible foreign universities, the Bench had said, “It’s better to have a transparent system. The Government of India has the resources to find out which countries have so many seats. Give them options, transparent options. You develop a portal. Develop a transparent system.”

On Friday, the government counsel submitted that they had already written to the secretaries of the ministries concerned and the issue of creating a web portal had been taken up with “utmost priority”.