Overview
- The Medical Education Department issued a Government Resolution on Thursday, July 23, 2026, abolishing the compulsory one-year social responsibility bond for MBBS graduates and directing the DMER online bond-allotment portal to be shut down.
- Graduates who had not been allotted postings, who were allotted but had not joined, or who could not complete their service are exempted from the bond while those already serving must finish their remaining tenure.
- The GR also states that no fresh bond postings will be made in future and that candidates who previously paid a penalty to opt out of the bond are not entitled to refunds.
- Student and resident-doctor bodies welcomed the move as removing a barrier to postgraduate admissions, while some public health advocates warned that cancelling the bond does not by itself fill vacant rural posts or fix poor working conditions for bond doctors.
- The bond was introduced in 2006 to staff rural health services and officials say MBBS intake rose from roughly 4,500 seats in 2006 to more than 11,000 by 2025, so the state must now find new ways to place and retain doctors in underserved areas and fill existing vacancies.