Justice Manmohan Sarin in a judgement this week held that the MCI orders of October 10 and October 23, 1996 to this effect ``are illegal and contrary to the provisions of MCI Act and cannot be sustained and are accordingly quashed.''

The High Court order came on a petition filed by Tarun Goel and other students, who got MD degrees from Daghestan Medical Academy and Minsk State Medical Institute of USSR.

Directing MCI to grant registration to the petitioners after verifying their certificates and degrees with the said institutes, the court ruled there was no basis for the Council to justify its order and make frequent changes in its decision regarding derecognition of some of the USSR institutes and increasing the period of internship of the medicos.

The MCI had issued the order afterdisintegration of USSR saying that due to utter confusion after the break up of the Republic the standards of many of its institutes had fallen.

``It deserves to be noticed the USSR though disintegrated in 1991, the MCI made recommendation for derecognition of some of its institutes in 1994 to the Central Government, which has not yet taken any decision, hence the institutions continue to be lawfully recognised,'' the judgement said.

The judgement further said that MCI had failed to bring to the court's notice any rule or regulation in force in USSR regarding any practical training after completion of medical qualification.

The certificates produced by Tarun Goel from Daghestan Medical Academy show that he had successfully undergone the internship and practical training as part of the course in that institute and was entitled to carry out his professional duties.

``MCI has not been able to substantiate its contention that after successfully completing MD course of one plus six years (in USSR) furthertraining of one year is required to be undergone in India before the candidates are permitted to practice,'' the court observed.

From the documents and records produced before the court it was clear that petitioner had successfully undergone internship or practical training in the sixth year of his study as per the requirements of the foreign recognised medical institutes, the court said.