Pulling up National Medical Commission (NMC) for failing to ensure payment of stipends to medical interns across the country, the Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the regulator of the medical profession to ‘get up from slumber’.

A bench comprising Justices Aravind Kumar and NV Anjaria – which expressed strong displeasure over NMC’s inaction – noted that medical interns often worked for more than 18 hours a day and that payment of a stipend was the bare minimum they deserved.

Terming the lapse as “deeply concerning” and “unjustified", particularly in light of the long working hours endured by young doctors, the top court said, “The conduct of NMC requires to be deprecated in as much as the payment of the stipend to the interns has been pending since long before this court and yet, NMC seems

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