In a major policy shift, the Maharashtra government has abolished the mandatory one-year Social Responsibility Service (bond service) for MBBS graduates, bringing relief to thousands of young doctors whose higher education and career plans were often delayed due to a shortage of government postings. However, the compulsory bond service for postgraduate (PG) and super-speciality (SS) medical courses will continue unchanged.
The decision was announced through a Government Resolution (GR), which cited the growing mismatch between the number of MBBS graduates and the limited availability of government bond-service posts. With medical colleges expanding rapidly across the state, authorities said it had become increasingly difficult to provide bond postings to all eligible graduates within the stipulated period. As a result, many doctors were unable to fulfil the bond requirement, delaying their admission to postgraduate courses and affecting their career progression.
Why the Government Changed the Policy
The MBBS bond service was introduced in 2006 to ensure that newly qualified doctors served in government hospitals and rural healthcare centres before pursuing higher studies or private practice. At the time, Maharashtra had a relatively small number of MBBS seats and faced a shortage of doctors in public healthcare facilities.
Over the past two decades, however, the number of MBBS seats has increased substantially, while the number of bond-service vacancies has not kept pace. According to the government, this created an “inverse ratio” between available postings and graduating doctors, making the existing system impractical.
The government also observed that many graduates were taking up the bond service primarily to meet eligibility requirements for PG admissions rather than as a long-term public health commitment. It further noted that fresh MBBS graduates often lacked the experience required to independently manage emergency medical services.
Who Will Benefit?
The revised policy applies to MBBS graduates from government, municipal, government-aided and eligible private medical colleges in Maharashtra.
Under the new rules:
- Graduates who were eligible but had not yet been allotted a bond posting are exempt from the mandatory service.
- Candidates who were allotted postings but had not joined before the GR was issued are also exempt.
- Those who could not complete the bond service for any reason are no longer required to finish the remaining period.
- Doctors who had already joined their allotted bond postings before the notification must complete their service tenure.
- Candidates who had earlier paid the prescribed penalty to obtain exemption from the bond service will not receive any refund.
The government has also ordered the immediate closure of the online portal used for allotting MBBS bond-service postings, and no fresh postings will be made under the abolished scheme.
PG and Super-Speciality Bond Remains
While the undergraduate bond has been withdrawn, the state has decided to continue the mandatory bond service for doctors completing postgraduate and super-speciality medical courses.
The government believes specialists play a crucial role in strengthening healthcare services in public hospitals, particularly in underserved regions, and therefore the existing bond policy for higher medical education will remain in force.
Doctors Welcome the Move
The decision has been welcomed by resident doctors’ organisations, including the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD), which described it as a long-awaited reform that would remove unnecessary administrative hurdles for MBBS graduates.
Doctors’ groups said the change would enable young graduates to pursue postgraduate education and career opportunities without prolonged waiting periods for government postings. At the same time, they urged the state government to focus on improving healthcare infrastructure and creating adequate medical positions instead of only increasing the number of MBBS seats.
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