NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has directed the Central government to initiate immediate measures to ensure that no seat in medical colleges, especially those for super speciality courses, remains vacant.
A Supreme Court Bench comprising Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice K.V. Viswanathan while hearing a plea on the matter observed that ‘seats also cannot go vacant’.
The issue of unfilled super speciality seats was first flagged by the apex court in April 2023. At that time, it described the situation as a ‘very sorry picture’, highlighting that as many as 1,003 critical super speciality seats were left unfilled, despite a shortage of specialised doctors.
The Central government had proposed the formation of a committee to address the issue, which was accepted.
Recently, the Central government informed the Supreme Court that a committee comprising stakeholders, including representatives from states and private medical colleges, under the chairmanship of the Director General of Health Services, submitted its recommendations on the issue.
The apex court directed the Centre to convene a meeting with all the stakeholders and come up with a concrete proposal based on the committee’s findings.
“On one hand, there is a persistent shortage of super speciality doctors, and on the other, these precious seats remain unfilled. This imbalance must be corrected,” the Supreme Court remarked.
The court has given three months to the Central government to implement the directive and posted the matter for hearing to April.