With thousands of students studying in Ukraine fleeing the war-torn country and returning to India, a recent plea filed in the Supreme Court seeks to accommodate medical students in Indian medical colleges as a ‘one-time measure’.
As an alternative, the plea requests the Centre and states to declare some seats in the central, state and private medical colleges as overseas campuses of Ukrainian institutes.
Filed by two advocates, the plea highlights the plight of Indian students who are compelled to discontinue their studies in various courses, including medical courses, in several Ukrainian institutes.
The plea underlines the absence of clarity on normalcy returning to Ukraine and whether students will be able to complete their courses.
‘Petitioners are public-spirited persons and utterly disturbed by the plight of the medical students, compelled to return to India leaving their medical courses in various colleges and universities in Ukraine’, the plea states.
On March 4, the Supreme Court had taken note of the Centre’s submission that it has so far evacuated 17,000 Indian students from the conflict zone. The SC had asked the Centre to consider setting up an online helpline for parents and families of students stranded in Ukraine.