LONDON: United Kingdom-based Indian doctors, campaigning against new "discriminatory" immigration rules, launched a new round of legal battle on Monday when the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO) filed a petition in the Appeals Court seeking a review of last week's High Court judgment.

Stay sought

They also sought a stay on the implementation of the new rules until their appeal was decided.

Last Friday, the High Court upheld the rules which require government hospitals wishing to employ doctors from outside the European Union to demonstrate that no U.K. or European Union doctor is available for the post.

"Strong case"

Dr. Ramesh Mehta, president of BAPIO, said he expected the petition to be heard soon. But it could still take "months" for the case to be decided.

"We believe we have a strong case," he said, expressing "disappointment" over the High Court judgment.

More than 10,000 Indian doctors are among the 16,000 overseas postgraduate medical students and junior doctors affected by the new rules introduced last April.

Government claim

The British Government claims that it is simply responding to demand for jobs from British medical graduates whose number has risen considerably in recent years.

The British Medical Association is backing BAPIO's campaign against applying the rules retrospectively to the doctors who are already in Britain and either training or working in temporary posts.

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