A division bench of Justice RM Borde and Justice Sangeetrao Patil have asked the ministries to re-consider his application and decide afresh considering he is not practicing as a doctor, but is a research scholar in the US.
In an important order, Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court, on Tuesday, directed Union Health Ministry, and Ministry of Human Resource Development, to reconsider the application of Kandivli based bio-medical research scientist Sunil Noothi, who was forced to return to India from the United States due to his application for ‘No Obligation to Return to India’ (NORI) certificate being denied.
A division bench of Justice RM Borde and Justice Sangeetrao Patil have asked the ministries to re-consider his application and decide afresh considering he is not practicing as a doctor, but is a research scholar in the US.
Advocate Rahul Totala, appearing for Noothi said, “The court has granted partial relief to my client, and asked the authorities to decide our fresh application within three months from the time of submission.”
Totala had argued, “The impugned communications, rejecting claim of the petitioner for grant of NORI Certificate, is unjust, unfair, illegal and discriminatory.”
In it’s opposition to the plea, the ministries cited, “To plug the skewed doctor-patient ratio in the country, the Health Ministry stopped issuing NORI certificates to doctors except those aged above 65 since 2013. While medical students are permitted to study abroad, stopping NORI certificate forces them to return after their course is completed, and practice in India.”
The bench, after going through the facts, noted “It is obvious that even if he resides in India, he is not going to render his services to citizens of India, as a doctor, because of his inclination in research work.
The ultimate aim of his research project is to find cures in blood cancer. Research work taken up by him is likely to help the entire mankind. Therefore, it was expected of the authorities to encourage the petitioner by issuing NORI Certificate, instead of creating technical hurdles in his commendable research project.”
The court while setting aside the decision said, “Research scholar cannot be equated with a doctor/medical officer. In the circumstances the refusal on the part of the respondent in not issuing NORI certificate does not appear to be fair, reasonable and proper.”
Noothi, in his petition claimed he worked with the University of Kentucky’s Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics since 2013. On December 28, 2015, he was forced to return to India, after the ministry rejected his NORI application claiming he was an MBBS graduate and therefore a doctor.
His representations made to the ministry on three dates — March 4, April 6 and May 23 this year — yielded a response that NORI was denied by both the HRD and the health ministries, based on ‘policy guidelines’ framed by the Union Health Ministry.
Noothi had moved to the US in 2011 to pursue post-doctoral courses in physiology and biophysics. He later joined Kentucky University as a post-doctoral scholar in 2013. From 2011, he lived on J1 visa, which expired in five years.
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