MBBS Intern Stipend: NMC Fines Colleges, Your Right 2026

Ravi finished his MBBS and joined his college hospital for the compulsory one-year internship. He works full shifts, takes night duty and runs the wards, but his college pays him nothing and tells him interns are still students who do not get a stipend. That is wrong. A monthly stipend during your compulsory rotatory medical internship is your legal right, not a favour, and in March 2026 the National Medical Commission fined seven medical colleges Rs 1 crore each for hiding their stipend records.

This guide tells you exactly what your right is, how to claim an unpaid stipend using the RTI Act, and what the NMC penalty means for interns and resident doctors across India.

Every MBBS intern doing the compulsory rotatory medical internship and every postgraduate resident is entitled to a monthly stipend, fixed by your state government or university, paid by both government and private colleges alike. This is mandated by the Compulsory Rotatory Medical Internship Regulations, 2021 and the Postgraduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023, and backed by Supreme Court orders directing that interns and residents be paid. A college cannot call you “just a student” to avoid paying. The exact amount differs by state and institution, but the entitlement does not.

If your college pays no stipend, pays less than the state-fixed rate, or refuses to disclose the rate, you can force the facts into the open with a Right to Information application and complain to the NMC.

You do not have to fight this blind. The RTI Act, 2005 lets you pull the official numbers first, then build a clean complaint on top of them.

1. File an RTI with the college and the state DME. Ask the Public Information Officer of your medical college and the state Directorate of Medical Education for the sanctioned stipend rate, the order fixing it, and the month-wise stipend actually paid to interns and residents. Use the AI RTI Drafter to turn your problem into a clean RTI in minutes. Government colleges and state DMEs are public authorities, so RTI applies directly.
2. Check the college website. Since 11 July 2025 the NMC has directed every medical college to publish its stipend details online. If the page is missing or blank, that itself is a violation you can cite.
3. Send a written representation to the college. Quote the CRMI Regulations, 2021, the state stipend order you obtained, and ask for arrears with dates and amounts.
4. If you get no reply or a refusal, file a first appeal. Under Section 19(1) of the RTI Act you can appeal within 30 days. The First Appeal Builder drafts it for you and flags invalid refusal grounds.
5. Complain to the NMC. Write to the Under-Graduate Medical Education Board, NMC, at [email protected] for interns, citing non-payment or non-disclosure of stipend. The NMC has shown it will act, including monetary penalties on colleges.

• Your internship or residency joining and posting orders
• Any payslips or bank statements showing what you were actually paid
• The state or university order fixing the stipend rate, if available
• Screenshots of the college website stipend page, or proof that it is missing
• Copies of your RTI application, the reply, and any reminders

On 12 March 2026 the National Medical Commission issued Public Notice No. U-22370-Legal-UGMEB and imposed a monetary penalty of Rs 1,00,00,000 (Rupees One Crore) each on seven medical colleges. The reason was non-compliance: these colleges failed to furnish and disclose information about the stipend paid to MBBS interns and postgraduate residents, despite an earlier NMC directive of 11 July 2025 and repeated reminders.

The seven include Government Medical College, Barmer, Government Medical College, Ongole, Dumka Medical College and Pt. B. D. Sharma Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Rohtak, among others named in the NMC notice. The Commission was clear that this was a “serious and material breach,” especially in light of Supreme Court orders mandating payment of stipend to interns and residents. It warned that continued non-compliance can attract further action, including restrictions on admissions and suspension of permissions.

Importantly, read the penalty correctly: the colleges were fined for not disclosing the stipend data, set against a backdrop of regulations and court orders that make paying the stipend compulsory. Disclosure and payment are linked, but the entitlement to a stipend stands on its own.

The duty to pay a stipend flows from the Compulsory Rotatory Medical Internship Regulations, 2021 for interns and the Postgraduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023 for residents, framed under the National Medical Commission Act, 2019. The Supreme Court reinforced this in State of Uttar Pradesh vs. Bhavna Tiwari, SLP (C) No. 9298 of 2018, and in Abhishek Yadav vs. Army College of Medical Sciences, WP (C) No. 730 of 2022, both cited in the NMC notice. The amount is fixed by the appropriate state, university or institution, which is why a Barmer intern and a Chennai intern may draw different sums, but neither can be paid nothing.

Because the RTI Act, 2005 covers government colleges and state Directorates of Medical Education, you can use it to obtain the sanctioned rate and the actual disbursement record before you complain. Read the full statute on the RTI Act 2005 page, and for the full filing workflow see The RTI Playbook.

Yes. A monthly stipend during the compulsory rotatory medical internship is mandated by the CRMI Regulations, 2021 and reinforced by Supreme Court orders. Your college cannot treat you as an unpaid student worker. The amount is set by your state or university, but the right to be paid is settled.

Yes. The obligation applies to government and private colleges alike. NMC regulations do not allow a private college to skip the stipend or pay below the state-fixed rate. Several private institutions feature among colleges that have faced NMC scrutiny on stipend disclosure.

There is no single national figure. The stipend is fixed by your state government or university and varies across states and institutions. Use an RTI to your state Directorate of Medical Education to get the exact sanctioned rate, then compare it with what you were actually paid.

Yes. File an RTI with your government college and the state DME asking for the stipend order and the month-wise amounts paid. This gives you official figures to support a complaint or an arrears claim. The AI RTI Drafter can prepare the application for you.

It penalised seven colleges Rs 1 crore each for failing to disclose stipend-payment details, despite a clear NMC directive and reminders. It was a transparency and compliance action, layered on top of the existing legal duty to pay interns and residents a stipend.

Send a written representation to the college first, then complain to the Under-Graduate Medical Education Board of the NMC for interns. Keep your joining order, payslips and RTI replies ready as evidence. The NMC has acted against defaulting colleges, including heavy penalties.

• National Medical Commission, Public Notice No. U-22370-Legal-UGMEB dated 12 March 2026 (StipendPenality_mergedNotice.pdf), nmc.org.in
• Compulsory Rotatory Medical Internship Regulations, 2021 and Postgraduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023
• State of Uttar Pradesh vs. Bhavna Tiwari, SLP (C) No. 9298 of 2018; Abhishek Yadav vs. Army College of Medical Sciences, WP (C) No. 730 of 2022

• AI RTI Drafter - generate your stipend RTI instantly
• First Appeal Builder - draft a Section 19(1) appeal if your RTI is refused
• RTI Act 2005 - full text
• The RTI Playbook