London: On Friday, the London High Court upheld a new rule, declining to quash the Immigration Regulations that came into force on April 3, 2006, leaving nearly 16,000 Indian doctors in jeopardy.
The Immigration Regulations stipulate that medicos from outside the European Union need a permits not just to work but to train as well in the UK, thus abolishing permit free training for overseas doctors.
Indian doctors seeking training jobs in the UK had faced uncertain futures after the Department of Health abolished permit free training last year.
Subsequently voluntary organisations like the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO) had initiated legal action against the Department of Health, seeking a judicial review.
However, the court, on Friday, observed that there was no obligation on the government departments to consult BAPIO or other interested parties before making the changes to the Immigration Rules, though it did say that the Secretary of State for Home had failed to carry out a Race Equality Impact assessment before making changes to the Immigration Rules.
BAPIO President, Ramesh Mehta, said, "We believe we have a strong case and we are positively thinking of appealing against the High Court verdict."
"The verdict has provided no relief to thousands of international medical graduates whose careers are being destroyed by the new Immigration Regulations which came into force on April 3, 2006," he added.
"We are surprised that the court does not agree with us that the Department of Health Guidance misrepresents the effect of the Immigration Rules and it is an illegitimate attempt to amend the rules, thereby circumventing the requirements of Section 3(2) of the Immigration Act 1971," Mehta further stated.
As regards race Impact assessment, Justice Stanley Burton observed, "If there had been a significant examination of the race relations issues involved in the change to the Immigration Rules, there would have been a written record of it."
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