The Patna High Court struck the government of Bihar for its position on the issue. (Representative)
Patna:
The Patna High Court struck the Bihar government for its assertion that the granting of weighting marks as an incentive to doctors working in rural areas in their postgraduate entrance exams “would negatively affect” those posted in the areas urban.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Karol and Judge Sanjay Kumar, in his May 28 judgment, rejected the state government position, calling it “illogical, illegal and immoral”.
“The percentage of vacancies for doctors in rural areas is very high and extremely disproportionate,” said the court and stressed that “in this context, the Supreme Court had, in a judgment, while recognizing the sacrifice made by doctors posted in the rural areas observed that the academic merit of the candidate must also count on the services rendered for the common or public good. “
The bench noted that the Supreme Court had also taken note of the “concentration of doctors in urban areas”, which is why a large number of posts in rural areas remain vacant.
The court also said it was unhappy that out of 11,645 licensed medical positions in the state, 8,768 were vacant, including 5,674 in rural, remote or difficult areas.
“The incentive to second doctors / medical staff … can only be in the public interest … Has the secondment of doctors in urban areas improved people’s general health? …… Is it that with their assignment in urban areas, the referral to private hospitals has stopped, “asked the court.
“To our knowledge, this is not the case. So how does posting the majority of doctors in urban areas help anyone except to perpetuate acquired rights,” he said. he noted.
In Bihar, it is recognized that many positions in rural health centers and hospitals are vacant because doctors are unwilling to work in these areas, the bench observed.
“… and for this reason, the Medical Council of India has encouraged doctors to serve in these areas by adding a weight of 10 to 30 percent in NEET,” the court said.
“There is no doubt that the discretion to grant benefits rests with the government, but its exercise must then be based on justification and not in an arbitrary and capricious manner,” the court noted.
The High Court ordered the Bihar Entrance Combined Competitive Examination Board to redesign the merit list for postgraduate medical courses.
As a separation note in the over 50-page order, the court said that the Chief Secretary of State “should, with the normalization of the current COVID 19 pandemic, ensure that vacations in rural / remote / difficult areas should be provided as much as possible either by transfer or by speeding up the recruitment process “.
