Quarantine days of PG students’ COVID-19 service must be deducted from bond period, says Madras High Court

To recognise the services rendered by postgraduate medical students during COVID-19, the Madras High Court has ordered that not only the period of such service but also the days when they had been quarantined should be deducted from the two-year compulsory in-bond government service that they are supposed to perform after completion of the course.

Justice Anita Sumanth passed the orders while allowing a writ petition filed by Pradeep Vasudevan, a postgraduate in general medicine, now serving at a primary health centre (PHC) in Salem. She directed the State government to deduct 150 days from his two year in-bond service period and advance the closure of the bond period to January 2, 2024 instead of May 31, 2024.

The petitioner’s counsel Suhrith Parthasarathy brought it to the notice of the court that his client had undergone his postgraduation at KAP Viswanathan Government Medical College in Tiruchi and completed it in May 2022. At the time of admission to the course, he executed a bond for ₹40 lakh and gave an undertaking to serve in State institutions for a period of two years.

Within a few months after the commencement of the course, the pandemic struck, and the government hospital attached to his college required the services of medical students too. Though no formal appointment orders were issued to postgraduate students, duty sheets would prove the services rendered by them during the crucial moment, the counsel said.

He also brought it to the notice of the judge that in similar cases, Justices C.V. Karthikeyan and N. Seshasayee of the High Court had recently ordered that the period of service rendered by postgraduate and super-speciality students during COVID-19 should be offset from their compulsory two year in-bond service period.

Justice Karthikeyan had observed that those undergoing specialised medical courses could have easily avoided COVID-19 duty on the grounds that they were still students. Yet, they did not avoid the call of duty despite the risk of contracting the infection, and hence, their services must be recognised by the State, he had said.

Justice Sumanth concurred with him and Justice Seshasayee. She went a step ahead to state: “An additional question that arises in the present case is as to whether quarantine relatable to COVID-19 period is also be taken as bond service. The period of quarantine is, in my considered view, nothing but an extension of COVID-19 duty itself as the rules prevalent then required mandatory quarantine.”

Stating the petitioner would have continued with the duty in the COVID-19 ward itself had it not been for the mandate of compulsory quarantine, the judge said the quarantine period should also be counted as on-duty period and deducted from the in-bond service period.