NMC turns a blind eye to 60 medical colleges not paying stipend to interns

The National Medical Commission has remained silent on 60 medical colleges, including 27 private medical colleges, admitting that no stipend is paid to interns. Since 2022, the Supreme Court has been hearing the issue of non-receipt of stipends by MBBS trainees. The only action taken by the NMC, after a heavy push by the courts, was to announce a fine of Rs 1 crore on seven universities for not providing any information on stipend payment, five days before the court hearing.During the last hearing on October 28, 2025, the court said in its order that the NMC “seems to be dragging its feet without any serious concern”. “We are forced to make this observation as no action appears to be taken against the erring agency. We hope and believe that the NMC will wake up from its slumber and take appropriate steps… at least until the next hearing,” it added. The case was scheduled to be heard on March 17. On March 12, the National Medical Council issued a notice imposing a fine of Rs 10 million on seven medical colleges that “failed to provide necessary information on payment of stipends to trainee doctors despite repeated reminders.”The commission’s data shows that as early as 2024, 60 colleges did not pay any stipend to MBBS interns. However, the committee chose to take action against only seven universities that failed to provide information.Earlier, The Times of India analyzed stipend payment data submitted by hundreds of medical colleges and found that private colleges save tens of millions of rupees every year by not paying the same stipends as government medical colleges. Therefore, even a one-time fine of Rs 1 crore is unlikely to have a deterrent effect on many private medical colleges.Thousands of MBBS students doing clinical work during their final year internship are earning a monthly salary of just Rs 2,000, according to data submitted by the NMC to the Supreme Court. The chief judge hearing the case on the grant of allowances at that time said that not paying allowances to young doctors who worked 16 to 20 hours a day was like the practice of bonded labor.The hearing on March 17 did not take place and the Mandatory Rotation Medical Internship Regulations 2021 still has a provision that “all interns shall be paid stipend as per the rates determined by the appropriate authority applicable to the institution/university or state”. This is different from the rules for postgraduate residents, where the stipend paid must be the same as that paid to residents in state government medical institutions in the state where the institution is located. Although the Ministry of Health urged the NMC to review the stipend provisions for MBBS trainees under the respective provisions of the Postgraduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023, no action has been taken even though the case has dragged on for the fourth year without resolution.In fact, the issue has been dragging on since January 25, 2019, when the Governing Council of the Medical Council of India issued a notification seeking public comments on adding a clause in the Postgraduate Medical Education Regulations, 1997, which states: “All candidates undertaking compulsory rotational internship in institutions completing MBBS courses shall be provided with a stipend equal to that paid to state government interns. Medical Institution/Central Government Medical Institution in the State/Union Territory where the institution is located. “However, the BOG was disbanded and the provision was not gazetted.