‘You make them work for 18-19 hrs…’: Supreme Court orders Army Medical College to pay stipend arrears to 2022 MBBS interns

Justice Dhulia responded, “Since these students worked for the College, they must be paid the stipend"

The Supreme Court on August 1 (Friday) ordered the Army College of Medical Sciences (ACMS) to pay arrears of stipend to MBBS interns.

The direction came during the hearing of a petition titled Abhishek Yadav & Ors vs Army College of Medical Sciences & Ors, in which the 2022 MBBS graduates of ACMS sought payment of their internship stipend, which they alleged had been denied in violation of statutory regulations.

A Bench comprising Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Aravind Kumar reprimanded the college for not releasing the stipends despite an earlier direction from the apex court, according to a report by LiveLaw.

Justice Kumar questioned the delay: “You make them work for 18 hours, 19 hours and you don't want to pay them stipend?”

The arrears are to be calculated at the rate of Rs 25,000 per month and paid within eight weeks.

Senior Advocate R Balasubramanian, appearing for the Army College, told the court that the institution was “run by a society” and “not government-funded.” However, this argument was not found convincing by the Bench.

Justice Dhulia responded, “Since these students worked for the College, they must be paid the stipend.”

According to the report, appearing for the petitioners, Advocate Tanvi Dubey informed the Court that “three subsequent batches have received a stipend of Rs 25,000.”

Supporting the argument, another counsel for petitioner Abhishek Yadav said, “They have already given their services in the mandatory internship programme. This order says that the present batch commencing from today should get a stipend of Rs 25,000. We are the ones that approached the Court. We have already interned and given our services and we have not been given any sort of arrears.”

The court took strong note of the non-compliance with earlier directions issued in September 2023 by a three-judge Bench, which had fixed a lump sum stipend of Rs 25,000 per month for MBBS interns.

In the order, the court has been quoted as saying: “Advocate R Balasubramanian, who appears for Army Medical College Sciences has made a very fair statement that Army College will give the same stipend of Rs 25,000 to all the interns. A three-judge bench of this Court on the same matter had passed the following orders giving stipend to the interns who are similarly situated as the petitioners batch commencing from 1 October 2023, for whom a stipend of Rs 25,000 was fixed. We are informed that this stipend has been given.”

The court further noted that for the previous batch, the same benefit should be given.

“Since nothing has come from the Respondent as to the amount, consequently we direct that interns of 2022, who had done their internship with Army Medical College, that also be paid an amount of Rs 25,000. Let the same be calculated and paid within eight weeks,” it said.