Indian doctors have won a significant legal battle in the high court of Justice as the British government agreed to withdraw a "discriminatory clause", which would have excluded them from the job interview and appointment process if they did not have visas beyond August 1, 2007.

The high court was due to hear on Thursday the application filed by the British Association for People of Indian Origin for permission to take a judicial review of the injunction on rules affecting Highly Skilled Migrant Programme doctors.

As the judge began the hearing on Thursday, the secretary of state's counsel requested a brief adjournment.

BAPIO was then informed that the secretary of state was prepared to concede.

"BAPIO accepted this offer and agreed to withdraw the case since the secretary of state gave an undertaking to the court that this clause will be removed," Dr Ramesh Mehta, president of BAPIO, said on Friday.

"For the first time a clear message has been sent out that promises made to International Medical Graduates must be kept. HSMP doctors were allowed in to make UK their home; HSMP doctors must be treated at par with UK and EU nationals and there is no basis for discriminating against them," Mehta said.

On March 4, BAPIO obtained an emergency injunction to prevent discrimination of doctors on HSMP visa whose visas were due for renewal before August 1, in the first round of the current recruitment for 21,000 training jobs.

This was necessary because while the Department of Health had agreed to keep the new rules discriminating against HSMP doctors in abeyance, it had introduced a new clause which stated that to be considered for the interview these doctors must have HSMP visa that was current on August 1, 2007.

BAPIO believed that this would disadvantage many international doctors whose visa came up for renewal before this date and hence, filed for and obtained this injunction.

Dr Raman Lakshman, vice chair for policy, said "We had many doctors writing to us expressing concern that they will be refused an interview even though they had been shortlisted. We therefore had no option but to file for the injunction. We were sure we would have won if the case had been heard. We are pleased that the Department of Health has conceded and we hope there will be no further obstacles for HSMP doctors."

"This marks a great day in the history of IMG in the UK. At long last IMG have been able to assert their right to be treated fairly. We thank our barristers, solicitors and legal team for their efficient and effective action," said Dr Satheesh Mathew, vice chair for operations.

Meanwhile, a spokesman of UK Visas told PTI on Friday certain "transitional arrangements" have been made for Highly Skilled Migrants in the UK to ensure that they qualify for further leave to remain.

He said in all 40,713 applications were received from outside of the UK for consideration under HSMP during 2006 and of them 21,948 applications were approved.

Of the 14,716 applications for renewal of leave under HSMP in 2006, 14,109 were approved.

The spokesman said the new rules would have no effect on existing grants of leave.

"We do, however, anticipate that most migrants who have HSMP leave and who are economically active will be able to achieve leave under HSMP, under the transitional arrangements for self-employed people or under work permit employment," he said.

Referring to transitional arrangements, he said, "There were various transitional arrangements surrounding the month-long suspension of the scheme last year.  

The spokesman said, however, there are four substantive provisions.

Employed applicants who fail at extension stage, may vary their application to work permit employment. Although this is possible anyway, the two concessions in these cases are that -- employers will have a period of grace (42 days from the date of the letter telling the applicant that they fail at the points test) to apply for a work permit.

The resident labour market test (the requirement to advertise the post to prospective UK and European Economic Area nationals in advance of the application) will be waived, provided that the applicant has been in the post for at least eight months (if their leave grant was for 12 months or less) or at least 12 months (if their grant of leave was for more than 12 months).

Self-employed applicants who fail at the points test, may be granted leave under the transitional arrangements, provided that -- they have, during their HSMP leave, set up their own business, either singly or with others.

Applicants who need to take an International English Language Test at extension stage, will be allowed an additional period of 10 weeks for the test.

In addition, English language tests equivalent to IELTS which have already been received at the time of the application will be accepted for extension applications.

Applicants with leave to do the PLAB test or a clinical attachment who had received an approval letter under the general practitioner provision before the changes will still be able to switch, notwithstanding the general deletion of the rules allowing such people to switch into the HSMP.