Kathmandu, May 17

The Supreme Court today ordered Tribhuvan University not to bar 32 Indian students, who are pursuing MBBS studies at Janakpurdham based Janaki Medical College, from appearing in the annual exam.

With this order, the students who were not allowed to appear for the first annual exam held on 20 December 2018, will now have a chance to appear for the exam scheduled from Tuesday. The interim order was passed by a division bench of justices Kedar Prasad Chalise and Manoj Kumar Sharma, in response to a case filed by students Riya Sah and others, against the university.

The students had filed a case earlier seeking to appear for the exam scheduled from December 20, but the apex court that heard the case on December 27 ruled that there was no need to stay TU’s decision as the exam had already started. TU had decided to bar the students from appearing in the annual exam, arguing that they had not passed an entrance exam conducted by the Institute of Medicine.

The SC observed that the students had passed the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test of the Indian Central Board of Secondary Education, which meant that they had fulfilled the criterion set by Nepal Medical Council under the MBBS programme.

The court also said that foreign students pursuing their MBBS studies at Kathmandu University were being allowed to appear for exams and hence, it would be unfair to bar the students from appearing in the exam.