IMPORTANT POINT
The court ruled that attendance requirements for medical examinations must comply with national regulations, rejecting stricter university mandates.

JUDGMENT :

Amit Rawal, J.

This order shall dispose of twenty (20) writ appeals preferred against the common judgment dated 18.12.2024 disposing of various writ petitions whereby the appellants- petitioners were not successful in assailing the circular dated 22.5.2024 of the University called Kerala University of Health Science (KUHS) imposing a condition of having minimum 80% attendance in the total course period with at least 80% attendance in the Final year to satisfy the requirement of attendance to appear for the University examinations, in defiance to the regulations of 2023, promulgated Post Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023 (PGMER, 2023) vide notification dated 29.12.2023 by the National Medical Commission for adjudication of the controversy.

2. Succinctly, the facts in brief are enumerated herein below:

All the appellants-petitioners are Doctors, who have obtained admission for Post Graduate Courses in various Medical Colleges in the State affiliated with the University for the academic year 2021-2022. On the basis of the allotment by the Centralized authority appointed by the State and Central Government. The details of the courses being pursued by the different petitioners have been given in paragraph 1 of the writ petition which is not relevant for the adjudication of the lis. From the academic year 2021-2022, the competent authority had decided to conduct four rounds of all India quota counseling for NEET – Undergraduate and Post Graduate as per the modified Scheme. The said scheme came into consideration before the Supreme Court in SLP (C) No.10487 of 2021 and during the pendency of the matter, the Hon'ble court was informed that the modified scheme shall be implemented for the year 2021-2022 for admissions to NEET- Undergraduate and Post Graduate.

3. The National Medical Commission caused a notification dated 11.1.2022 intimating that academic session for the broad specialty courses for the year 2021 shall commence from 1.2.2022.

4. The National Medical Commission promulgated a notification dated 29.12.2023 called Post Graduate Medical Education Regulations (PGMER, 2023) and as per clause 5.5 of the regulation dealing with leave rules for Post Graduate Students prescribing that a candidate shall be able to appear in the examination if one has 80% of the attendance. The aforementioned clarification came in pursuance of the clause 5.5 mentioning that if the candidates avails the leave in excess of permitted number of days, his or her term of course shall be extended by same number of days to complete the 'training period'. Thus what is deduced is the 'examination' and training period' are two different stages. The aforementioned notification was clarified by the respondent vide public notice dated 10.4.2024 and in response to query No.2, it was clarified that total days in a three year course will be 1095 days and the total working days will be 939 days after deducting weekly off ie., 156 days. The student thus would require 80% of attendance of working days ie., 751 days of 939 days for appearing in the 'examination'. However, the training period will be extended by the same number of days for which the maternity / paternity leave or total excess casual leave has been availed in three (3) years.

5. The Kerala University of Health Sciences vide Circular dated 25.7.2024 on the subject of KUHS-Exam-Medical (A)- Medical PG Degree/Diploma R&S Examinations (Regular applicable for 2021 Admission) – Commencement of Examination – reg. clarified that the tentative examination calendar for the Academic Year 2024-25, the Medical PG Degree/Diploma Regular & Supplementary Examination for 2021 Admission was scheduled on 10^th March, 2025. It was issued on the basis of the direction of the National Medical Commission (NMC). On 22.5.2024, KUHS vide impugned circular introduced a different condition ie., alien to the condition promulgated by the National Medical Commission as per the regulations 2023 as well as the notice of 10.