Indian med students can appear in exams: Nepal SC

Nepal's Supreme Court has ordered a prominent university here to allow 32 Indian students pursuing medical studies in one of its affiliated colleges to appear in their annual examinations, months after they were debarred for not passing an entrance conducted by the institution's Institute of Medicine, according to a media report.

The apex court in its order May 17 ordered the Tribhuvan University to allow the 32 Indian students from appearing in their annual examinations, observing that they had cleared the Indian government-conducted National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, which meant that they had fulfilled the criterion set by Nepal Medical Council under the MBBS programme, the Himalayan Times reported.

The students, who are pursuing MBBS at Nepal's Janaki Devi Medical college affiliated to the Tribhuvan University, were to appear for their annual examination on December 20 last year.

However, they were not allowed to appear in the exams citing none of them had cleared an entrance conducted by the Institute of Medicine, the paper reported on Saturday. The students filed a case but then the apex court had denied staying the TU's order, saying the exam had already started.

However, the apex court on Friday ordered the university to allow the students from appearing in their annual examination.

The court said that foreign students pursuing their MBBS studies at Kathmandu University were being allowed to appear for exams and hence, it would be unfair to bar the students from appearing in the exam, the paper reported.