Dr.Sunil Noothi found himself jobless once he was forced to move back to India after working as a research scientist in a US university for under three years. The reason he had to come back- the refusal of the Centre to issue him a no obligation to return to India(NORI) certificate. The refusal came in the wake of a change in the guidelines for issuing the certificate.

To challenge the health ministry’s decision, the doctor has moved the Bombay High Court. This is the probably the first case with the Bombay high court in which an Indian medical graduate who isn’t practicing in the US is denied clearance to stay there on a non-immigrant visa to finish his research project.

Even though the bench said on Thursday that it will hear the matter, Rahul Totola, Noothi’s lawyer has moved a separate plea to tag the matter with yet another NORI case that’s pending before the Aurangabad bench. The anti-NORI policy which was introduced in 2014 was challenged by Dr.Sagar Mundada, the president of the Central Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors as “retrograde.” It would affect more than 4,000 doctors who live in the US after finishing higher medical studies in that country.

From important research to the court of law-the plight of Noothi

Noothi is a biomedical researcher with the University of Kentucky’s department of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics since August 2013. He had to return to India on December 28, 2015 since the US Department of Homeland Security demanded a NORI certificate.

Both the Karnataka government and the Mumbai Regional Passport Office had issued him NOCs. However, the Union human resource and health ministry departments rejected Noothis’ plea-something that happened with the Prime Minister’s Office in June as well. According to the health ministry, no NORI certificate has been issued since August 2011, except to applicants aged 65 years or more. Apparently, this is to help solve the problem of severe shortage of public health professionals in the country.

In Noothi’s petition, it is claimed that the Centre’s decision is devoid of any application of mind. Noothi clarified that though he hold an MBBS degree from a Bangalore college since 2002, he doesn’t practice medicine. He received his PhD from Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in 2008, following which we worked as an analyst and went to the US on a J1 visa in 2011. Noothi was in Kentucky as a postdoctoral scholar since 2013, and his project to find a new cure for blood cancer has been funded more than $1.5 million by the US government.

The J1 visa was only for five years. So, last February, he applied for NORI. The HRD ministry forwarded Noori’s plea, along with those of five others to the health ministry, given the fact that he possessed an MBBS degree prior to his PhD. The health ministry failed to respond. And in last December, Noothi had to come back to India. The health ministry informed him of the refusal in March 2016. A letter of recommendation was made by the President of the indian Medical Association to the health ministry stating that Noothi was fit to be a scientist. That too didn’t yield any positive result.

It was last month that Noothi met the Union minister, Venkaiah Naidu and certain MPs to plead for his case. The result of that endeavour was that he got another letter from the health ministry on May 23-this one mentioning that NORI is issued only to senior citizens. After he registered his grievance online with the PMO on June 2, he received the reply that his case was “closed.”

Noothi’s argument is that when he left for the US, NORI certificates were being issued; therefore, the guidelines framed afterwards couldn’t be applied to him. Noothi mentions his case to be distinct-he was a researcher and not a doctor in the US. Having an MBBS degree could not be used to deprive him of his job as that would be a violation of his right to trade and right to life. His writ also state that NORI is being issued to other researchers without an MBBS degree.

Since he is under a confidentiality and intellectual property protection agreement, Noothi cannot undertake the same research anywhere else-which is why he’s currently unemployed in India. Dr.Noothi was working on blood cancer of chronic lymphocytic leukemia at a complexity level “not found in Indian labs.”

Image credits: dermpath.ae,zete.com
Images may be indictaive

   Send article as PDF