In a landmark judgment establishing statutory parity across medical education, the Supreme Court of India ruled on Thursday that foreign medical graduates who have cleared the mandatory licensing screening exam must receive compulsory internship stipends on an exact equal footing with domestic medical graduates. The ruling was delivered by a division bench comprising Justices Aravind Kumar and M. Pancholi.
The apex court condemned the discriminatory practice adopted by several state medical directorates and private teaching hospitals of withholding stipends from foreign-trained interns or demanding institutional maintenance fees from them during clinical rotations. The bench observed that medical interns perform identical round-the-clock clinical patient care, emergency ward responsibilities, and diagnostic duties, and denying them statutory remuneration violates Article 14 of the Constitution.
The court directed the National Medical Commission and all state medical councils to issue binding directives within four weeks ensuring that equal stipends are disbursed directly into intern bank accounts without exception. Teaching medical colleges failing to comply with the equal compensation mandate risk immediate withdrawal of academic accreditation and statutory sanctions.
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Sources:
https://medadmit.in/updates/supreme-court-internship-stipend-parity-indian-foreign-medical-graduates-2026