25.03.2025 Item No.2,SL Court No.19 AJ.

IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA CONSTITUTIONAL WRIT JURISDICTION W.P.A. 6765 of 2025 Dr. Aprajita Jha -Vs-

The State of West Bengal & Ors.

Mr. Debasish Banerjee, Mr. Kartik Kumar Ray, Mr. N. Chakraborty, Mr. Rakesh Jana.

…..for the petitioner.

Mr. Swapan Kumar Datta, Ld. Sr. Adv., Mr. Dipankar Das Gupta.

……for the State.

Mr. D.N. Maiti, Mr. A. Santra.

……for the respondent nos.3 to 5.

As prayed for, leave is granted to the learned Advocate for the petitioner to add the National Medical Commission as party respondent to the writ petition, copy of the writ petition be served upon the added respondent along with a copy of this order.

Leave is also granted to the learned Advocate for the petitioner to correct the name of the petitioner in the cause title.

The petitioner after completing MBBS Course had participated in NEET PG 2021 and was successful. She opted to pursue M.D. in the subject of Community Medicine in the Department of Community Medicine at Burdwan College for the Session 2021 but the course, due to intervention of COVID-19 Pandemic, commenced on and from February, 2022.

The College has refused to grant the Course Completion Certificate to the petitioner on the ground that there is a shortfall of six months in completion of the said course, in consequence the petitioner is unable to register herself for the counselling scheduled to be held tomorrow (26.03.2025)

Learned Advocate for the petitioner submits that the petitioner was on admissible maternity leave for 180 days as such, there is no shortfall as alleged.

In terms of Paragraph 2.1 of the “Post Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023” (“PGMER-23” in short) the petitioner is required to undergo 36 months training for the Post Graduate Degree. Paragraph 5.5(c) thereof prescribes that a female Post Graduate student shall be entitled to maternity leave as per existing Government Rules and Regulations.

The Government Regulation prescribes 180 days maternity leave, therefore, refusal to grant the Course Completion Certificate to the petitioner in the facts and circumstances of the present case prima facie is not justified.

The Principal, Burdwan Medical College, District : Purba Bardhaman, the respondent no.6 herein, therefore, is directed to issue the Course Completion Certificate to the petitioner immediately enabling her to participate in the counselling.

The issue whether the maternity leave availed by the petitioner would be treated as a shortfall in her course duration shall be decided upon exchange of affidavits by the parties.

Let the affidavit-in-opposition to the writ petition be affirmed by the respondents within a period of four weeks from date; reply thereto, if any, be affirmed by the petitioner within two weeks from the date of receipt of the copy of such affidavit-in-opposition.

Place the matter in the Supplementary List eight weeks hence under the heading “Final Disposal” before the appropriate Bench.

Parties to act on the server copy of this order downloaded from the official website of this Court.

Urgent Photostat certified copies of this order, if applied for, be supplied to the parties subject to compliance with all requisite formalities.

(Biswajit Basu, J.)