Final year students who returned to India due to Covid and Russia-Ukraine war and got degrees from their institutes on or before June 30, 2022, will be allowed for Foreign Medical Graduate exam, the National Medical Commission said Friday.

Upon qualifying the Foreign Medical Graduate (FMG) exam, they will be required to undergo a Compulsory Rotating Medical Internship (CRMI) for two years instead of the existing one year, the NMC said in a public notice.

The foreign medical graduates will be eligible to get registration only after completing the two-year CRMI, it said adding the relaxation granted to the foreign medical students is a "one-time measure" and shall not be treated as "precedence in the future".

"In pursuance to the order passed by the Supreme Court on April 29, it is informed that the Indian students who were in the last year of their undergraduate medicine course (had to leave their foreign medical institute and return to India due to COVID-19, Russia -Ukraine war etc) and have subsequently completed their studies as also have been granted a certificate of completion of the course by their respective institute, on or before June 30, 2022, shall be permitted to appear in FMG exam," the notice said.

"Thereafter, upon qualifying the FMG examination, such foreign medical graduates are required to undergo CRMI for a period of two years to make up for the clinical training which could not be physically attended by them during the undergraduate medicine course in the foreign institute as also to familiarise them with the practice of medicine under Indian conditions," the notice said.

The Supreme Court on April 29 directed the regulatory body to frame a scheme in two months to enable MBBS students affected by the Russia-Ukraine war and the pandemic to complete their clinical training in medical colleges here as a one-time measure.