Chennai: Emphasizing the need to have more doctors and specialists in various branches of medicine, the Madras High Court recommended starting more medical colleges, both in the states as well as at the national level. Urging the need to follow regulations, statutes and the orders passed by the Supreme Court in the matter of publishing the merit ranking list, Justice S.M.Subramaniam dismissed a batch of petitions from Dr.J.Yogesh and 16 others, which sought a direction to the authorities to include their names in the selection list for counseling for PG courses to be conducted by them to fill up seats for the Tamil Nadu state quota for the academic year 2018-2019.
The judge said that numerous students were now aspiring to secure seats in various medical courses. Under these circumstances, it was the duty of the state to ensure that an adequate number of medical colleges was made available to them, he added. The judge said that adequate medical facilities were fundamental rights of a citizen. Unless an adequate number of medical practitioners were available in commensuration with the population, the state was failing in its duty to comply with constitutional perspectives in this regard. “We need more doctors and specialists in various branches of medicine. Unless an opportunity is provided to students to pursue PG medical courses of their choice, these young minds will end up frustrated and will not be in a position to serve the nation. This being the view taken by this court, it is left open to the state and its authorities to think about these aspects and take some initiatives for the purpose of starting more medical colleges, both in the states as well as at the national level,” the judge added.
The judge said that in the instant petitions, the state was not responsible for non-publication of the state merit rank list to fill up the state quota. The delay was on account of the pendency of litigations before this court. Thus, the state should ensure that the merit ranking list was published without any further delay by obtaining necessary orders from the courts and at the time of filling up seats for PG medical courses, the authorities were bound to follow the regulations and the instructions provided in the prospectus, the judge added.
