MCI panel extension issue in apex court

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court agreed on Wednesday to hear a petition challenging the government’s decision not to extend the term of a panel appointed to supervise the functioning of the Medical Council of India (MCI).

Senior advocate Amarendra Sharan and Amit Kumar told a bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan the government did not issue a fresh notification to renew the term of the panel – called the Oversight Committee (OC) -- that ended on May 15. The bench will take up the petition on June 12.

While making scathing remarks against the MCI, the top court appointed the OC in May last year to check alleged corruption in the body which regulates medical studies in India.

The three-member OC, led by headed by former chief justice RM Lodha, was also tasked with suggesting ways to improve standards of medical education.

When the committee started functioning, the MCI had inspected 109 new colleges that had applied for admiting medical students in 2016. The council allowed only 17 colleges.

But the OC reviewed the MCI’s decision and permitted 34 more colleges to take students. This set the panel on a collision course with the MCI.

However, the government overruled the panel and banned the 32 colleges from admitting students for two years.

One of the most preferred career choices in India, the standard of medical education has deteriorated over the years, according to a parliamentary panel report last year.

It said medical graduates lack competence in performing basic healthcare tasks like normal deliveries. A section of private colleges allegedly hire doctors on rent to pose as full-time faculty members and fill beds with healthy people to pass government inspections.

According to the petitioner – Sankalp Charitable Trust – the SC had told the government the OC will continue to function till the Centre puts in place an appropriate mechanism to regulate medical colleges.

The petitioner referred to a recent government order declining permit to the medical colleges despite the OC’s clearance. It called the action illegal, jeopardising the future of students who are admitted in the colleges.