Chennai: Unyielding in its stand that post-graduate medical admissions for serving doctors of the Tamil Nadu government must be done only as per the new Medical Council of India (MCI) regulations, the medical body has told the Madras high court that the state could have its own reservation scheme, but award of marks should be according to the regulations.MCI's counsel made this submission before a division bench comprising Justice Huluvadi G Ramesh and Justice RMT Teekaa Raman, even as government doctors across the state were on the warpath against a single judge ruling which mandated the state to adopt MCI regulations for PG admissions this year. The bench said it would continue the hearing on Thursday, when a decision on the matter would be taken one way or the other.During arguments, it was submitted that for the past 35 years, Tamil Nadu has been awarding one mark to government doctors for every year of their service, subject to a maximum of 10 marks. This year, however, the National Board of Examinations which conducts NEET-PG had a norm as per which government doctors in 'difficult' or 'remote' regions would be eligible for 10% of the marks they score in NEET-PG as incentive for every year of service, with 30% being the ceiling.Citing this, a civil surgeon serving in the Nilgiris district moved the high court and got a favourable order, as per which he would be eligible for 30% of his NEET-PG score. Assailing the ruling, state government and doctors have filed the present batch of appeals.Senior advocate P Wilson pointed out that the petitioner-student would not be eligible for even the MCI-stipulated incentive, as he was from neither 'remote' nor 'difficult' areas, and that hilly regions are not defined as either remote or difficult.There is a prospectus in which the state government has clearly spelt out how serving candidates should be admitted and how experience marks should be awarded. There are five categories and they should be adopted in the manner as shown in the prospectus, Wilson said, adding that the petitioner had not challenged the validity of the prospectus either. MCI cannot change rules in the middle of the game, he said.

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