Help Ukraine-returned medical students, SC tells Centre

The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Centre to assist the war-torn Ukraine-returned students in admissions to the foreign colleges, after the Centre refused to accommodate them in the Indian universities.

Adjourning the case to September 23 (Friday), a bench of justices Hemant Gupta and Sudhanshu Dhulia asked the government to make a portal to assist the medical students in admissions to the foreign colleges to enable them to complete their courses as per the government's academic mobility programme.

It said there should be a transparent system and the web portal should specify complete details of the fees and the number of seats available in the alternate foreign universities from where they could complete their courses.

Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, sought time to get instruction from the Centre on the suggestions of the bench.

The bench was hearing a batch of petitions by the students, who were the undergraduate medical students of first to four year batches in Ukraine, for transfer to the medical colleges in India in their respective semesters. They were forces to be evacuated from Ukraine in February fter Russia declared a war on the country.

On Thursday, 15 September, the Centre filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court mentioning that they cannot be accommodated in medical colleges in India for lack of provisions under the law.

Observing that the medical colleges in the country cannot accommodate 20,000 students evacuated from Ukraine, the court stressed there is a need to coordinate between the students and authority concerned.

A lawyer appearing for one of the students urged the court to declare the evacuated medical students from Ukraine as war victims so they can avail benefits under the international law.