PG matching has started following the court's order, classes will begin from Asar 11

Nepal Health News, Kathmandu:The Medical Education Commission has resumed the postgraduate (PG) level matching process. The commission had previously proceeded with the matching process after reducing the seats of private medical colleges because they did not provide the minimum living allowance to resident doctors.

Expressing dissatisfaction over this, 14 students including Dr. Sujan Nyaupane had filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court. On Chaitra 21, the bench led by Justice Sapana Malla Pradhan issued an interim order directing the suspension of the process. However, the hearings were repeatedly postponed due to the court's busy schedule.

Recently, the commission’s 18th full meeting decided to conduct the matching process in an integrated manner, including seats from both government and private medical colleges. The court also approved this decision on Baishakh 31, deciding not to continue the earlier interim order. Based on this, the matching process has been restarted.

According to the commission’s vice-chairperson Dr. Anjani Kumar Jhaka, classes at the PG level are expected to begin from Asar 11.

Earlier, the commission had scheduled classes to begin from Baishakh 18, but the allowance dispute and the court’s interim order had stalled the process.

Following the movement in Asoj 2080 BS (around 2023 AD), the government agreed to address the resident doctors' issue by providing allowances equal to government doctors. A committee formed accordingly recommended that private colleges should also provide government-level allowances.

On Magh 25, 2081 BS, the commission made a decision in line with this recommendation. However, some private colleges filed petitions with the commission claiming they could not afford such allowances. Subsequently, the commission reduced seats for those colleges and proceeded with the exam process.

After seat reduction, students who took the exams protested and approached the court. When the court issued the interim order halting the matching process, the controversy intensified further. Now, with the court dismissing the writ petition, the process has resumed.

So far, out of 17 private medical colleges, 5 are still refusing to provide the minimum allowance set by the commission. This year, a total of 1,496 seats are available for the PG level across government and private colleges, according to the commission.