Karnataka HC upholds guidelines that did away with grace marks in UG medical exams

NEW DELHI: The Karnataka High Court dismissed a batch of petitions filed by UG medical students that sought a grant of five grace marks for the exams held in January. This would eventually have helped them pass the exams. The main argument of the students was that they should be granted the benefit of grace marks available under the regulations on Graduate Medical Education (Amendment) 2019.

However, the guidelines issued by the Undergraduate Medical Education Board (UGMEB) formed under the National Medical Council Act on August 1, 2023, did away with the award of grace marks.

Students claimed that since the 2019 regulations will take precedence over the guidelines, they should be granted grace marks and receive the benefit outlined in those regulations.

The Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) opposed the plea asserting that the guidelines framed by UGMEB must be construed to be passed under the power conferred under the Graduate Medical Education Regulations 2023. Therefore, claiming that the 2023 guidelines trace themselves to the 2019 regulation is not acceptable.

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Karnataka HC on grace marks row

A single judge bench of Justice S Sunil Dutt Yadav said, “It is inherent in any system of education that evaluation standards and methodologies change and such an aspect is within the sole discretion of the academic bodies incharge of maintaining such standards.”

“It noted the 2019 Regulations are stated to be applicable with respect to the batches admitted in MBBS Course from Academic Year 2019-20 onwards. However, by virtue of the NMC Act, 2019, the Medical Council of India Act, 1956 came to be repealed, and the Medical Council of India, stood dissolved,” read Livewire official.

Soon after, a new set of regulations called the “Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023” was also issued on June 6, 2023, specifying that there shall be no grace marks considered for passing the examinations.

The court added: “Regulation 19 provides for minimum standards of requirement (MSR) and medical colleges should follow the MSR from time to time.”

HC statement added “In the present cases, the relief is as regards the award of grace marks for the examination in January 2024. By such time, the Regulations of 2023 and the UGMEB Guidelines were already in force. If that were to be so, the question of awarding grace marks does not arise as provided for under the guidelines.”

It added, “It is but a natural process of any education system to constantly re-invent the course and examination patterns in order to produce high quality professionals.

The court rejected the student’s petitions and said, “It cannot be stated that the standards of Medical Education or evaluation process as existing on the date of admission of the students would continue till the end of the course nor can there be any vested right for continuation of the system of evaluation as it was at the time the students had joined the course.”