Supreme Court Upholds Odisha Govt’s Revised Medical Bond Policy

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has upheld Odisha government’s decision to revise the medical bond policy to discourage new medical graduates from leaving the state.

According to a report in Livelaw.in, the Apex Court on Monday rejected writ petitions filed by Association of Medical Super Speciality Aspirants and Residents who sought for quashing the compulsory bond conditions.

As per the revised bond policy of the Odisha government, a PG student would be slapped a fine of Rs 1.5 crore and a super speciality student will be penalised Rs 2 crore if he/she leaves the state after completing their medical programmes.

What did the court say:

A bench comprising Justice L Nageswara Rao and Justice Hemant Gupta observed that the “laudable” objectives with which the state governments have introduced compulsory service bonds is to protect the fundamental rights of the deprived sections of the society guaranteed to them by the Constitution.

Since there are several other states apart from Odisha which have a service bond in place, the top court suggested the Centre as well as the Medical Council of India to take steps for a uniform policy on compulsory services to be undertaken by the doctors who are trained in government institutes.