MCI dissolved, replaced with board of governors
NEW DELHI : The government on Wednesday dissolved the Medical Council of India (MCI), the apex body that regulated medical education in the country, and replaced it with a seven-member Board of Governors (BOG) by bringing an ordinance.
The BOG has been appointed initially for a period of one year, and will be the sole decisionmaking body till the National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill, 2017 -- meant to replace the MCI -- is cleared in Parliament.
The Bill is pending in Lok Sabha.
The seven members in the BOG include three doctors from the AIIMS- Dr VK Paul (former HOD paediatrics and current member, Niti Aayog), Dr Randeep Guleria (director) and Dr Nikhil Tandon (professor endocrinology).
There are two other doctors -Dr Jagat Ram (director-pgi Chandigarh) and Dr BN Gangadhar (director- National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences) -- and two ex officio members - Dr S Venkatesh (Director General of Health Services) and Dr Balram Bhargava (Director General- Indian Council of Medical Research).
The former deputy director general, directorate general of health services, Sanjay Shrivastava, has been appointed the secretary general to assist the BOG.
The BOG took charge soon after the ordinance was passed and held its first meeting.
“We discussed several administrative issues today. Government has found this to be an appropriate measure at this point in time, so we welcome it...,” said Dr Paul, who heads BOG. NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court decided on Wednesday it would start live-streaming some of its cases in a bid to increase transparency and prevent overcrowding in the courtrooms.
A three-judge bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, ruling on litigation seeking such a move, said a pilot project would be launched and developed over time.
“Live-streaming of court proceedings is manifestly in public interest,” the apex court said in its 106-page order. “It can epitomize transparency, good governance and accountability, and more importantly, open the vista of the court rooms.”
At first, only a few specific cases of constitutional and national importance, and are being argued before a constitution bench, will be live-streamed, after obtaining consent from the litigants.
Initially. the video will be streamed to screens in other areas within the court complex. The plan would later allow livestreaming over the internet.
The court asked the central government to frame rules for the project, said Shraddha Deshmukh, a government lawyer.
The top court said that sensitive cases such as those dealing with matrimonial disputes or sexual assault will be excluded.
“We hold that the cause brought before this court by the protagonists in larger public interest, deserves acceptance so as to uphold the constitutional rights of public and the litigants in particular,” the bench said, in two different but concurring judgements. “Above all, sunlight is the best disinfectant,” Justice Chandrachud wrote.