A bench of Hon’ble Mr. Justice Aravind Kumar and Hon’ble Mr. Justice N.V. Anjaria of the Supreme Court strongly criticized the National Medical Commission (NMC) for failing to release stipends to medical interns, observing that “doctors are working for more than 18 hours a day and stipend is the basic thing they deserve.”
The petitioner doctors, represented by Ms. Tanvi Dubey, Advocate, contended that interns were unjustly denied their stipends despite rigorous duty hours of more than 18 hours. The NMC, represented by Mr. Shashank, Manish Advocate. The NMC referred to its notice dated 11.07.2025, but the Court noted that compliance with this notice had still not been made. The Ministry of Health was represented by Ms. Aishwarya Bhati, ASG.
Directing strict action, the Supreme Court ordered the NMC to file an affidavit of compliance within two weeks regarding the implementation of its July 2025 notice.
SC also observed in the order that we hope that NMC wakes up from its deep slumber and complies with the order this time.