Dental surgeon wants govt to return his certificates

CHENNAI: A postgraduate dental surgeon has approached the Madras high court for a direction to the authorities to return his original certificates. He claimed that the authorities were refusing to hand over the documents citing a bond he had signed three years ago.
Justice P Jyothimani, before whom the writ petition of M Saravanan came up for admission, adjourned the matter by a week for further proceedings.
Saravanan said he had completed his MDS course nine months ago but was unable to take up any assignment or even attend an Army Dental Corps interview as the authorities had declined to return the original certificates. He said that the authorities cited a bond he had signed at the time of admission, to the effect that he would serve the government for a period of at least two years or pay Rs 3 lakh as damages.
Saravanan said that he was still ready to serve the government but it was unable to create any job opportunities for doctors. Even candidates who had completed the MDS course in 2008 and 2009 were yet to be inducted in government service, he said.
Slamming the government's inability to create jobs and accommodate eligible MDS degree holders for the past two years, the petitioner said, "In the absence of clear objectives of the government, retention of all my original certificates by the health department authorities is highly irregular. Due to the uncertainty, I have been made to suffer for the past nine months."
The authorities cannot retain the certificates without any job assurance and it would virtually curtail his career prospects, he said. A query under the Right To Information (RTI) Act revealed that the government was yet to take any decision on the matter, he said. He wanted the court to direct the authorities to return all his original certificates without insisting on the bond amount.