ORDER

1. The Medical Council of India (`MCI' for short), the Petitioner herein, challenges the order of the Andhra Pradesh High Court dated 2.5.2008 in a batch of writ petitions filed by students possessing medical qualifications from a foreign University, directing (i) MCI to grant provisional registration under Section 25(1) of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 (`Act' for short) to all those students who have completed the screening test in accordance with the provisions of Section 13(4A) of the Act read with Screening Tests Regulations, 2002 (`Screening Regulations' for short); and (ii) MCI/State Medical Council, as the case may be, to grant permanent registration under Section 25(4) and Section 15 of the Act on the production of valid certificates in proof of completion of compulsory internship for one year.

2. The private Respondents are students who claim that they have completed the MBBS course in International Medical and Technological University (`IMT University' for short), a foreign University situated in Tanzania. The said university was established in Tanzania, by Vignan Education Foundation, an organization based in India. They fall under two categories. The first category are those who underwent the first two terms (Pre-clinical and Para clinical courses of 18 months each) between October 1998 and May 2002 at Katuri Medical College and Hospital, Guntur (which was, at that point of time, an unrecognized medical college) and the last term (the clinical course of 18 months) at Tanzania between June 2002 to November 2003/January 2004. The second category of students are those who underwent the entire course of study at Tanzania.

3. All these students, after successful completion of the course, underwent the Screening Test conducted by the National Board of Examinations as provided under the Screening Regulations. Some of the students were declined provisional registration and therefore could not do the internship in India and obtain permanent registration. Some of the students were granted provisional registration, completed the internship, but were declined permanent registration. Some students, after securing provisional registration and completing the internship, were granted permanent registration, but subsequently their registrations were cancelled. They all approached the High Court of Andhra Pradesh for relief.

4. The said petitions were resisted by MCI primarily on the following two grounds: (i) where an Indian student does any study in a medical college in India, established without the permission from the Central Government under Section 10A of the Act, is automatically disqualified from getting recognition of his medical degree, even if such degree is granted by a foreign University; and (ii) if a student's primary medical qualification is not a recognized qualification for enrolment as a medical practitioner in the country in which the Institution granting the medical qualification is situated, he will not be entitled to participate in the screening test examination.

5. The High Court, after exhaustive consideration, allowed the writ petitions holding that the writ Petitioners fulfilled the requirements of the Section 13(4A) of the Act and regulation (4) of the Screening Regulations, that is, (i) they were citizens of India, (ii) they had obtained a medical qualification outside India, granted by a medical institution (IMT University) in Tanzania, (iii) the medical qualification granted by the said medical institution in Tanzania is recognized for the purpose of enrolment as a medical practitioner in Tanzania, (iv) the Indian Embassy in Tanzania has confirmed that the medical qualification granted by IMT University, Tanzania (which granted the medical qualifications to the writ Petitioners) was a recognized qualification for enrolment as a medical practitioner in Tanzania; and (v) the writ Petitioners appeared and qualified in the screening test conducted by National Board of Examinations in India. As a co