CHENNAI: In a big blow to government doctors, Madras High Court has ruled that admissions for post-graduate medical courses can be made purely as per the Regulations of the Medical Council of India (MCI) issued in 2000.
Justice M Sathyanarayanan, the third judge assigned to hear the case since the previous two-member bench had given a split verdict, on Saturday upheld the supremacy of the MCI. With this, the Tamil Nadu government cannot follow its own regulations enabling 50% quota for government doctors in the PG courses. Also, the incentive marks should be given only to government doctors who served in remote and hilly areas, not to all government doctors as the State government had been doing so far.
The government doctors had been on protest and boycotting work for the last few weeks demanding continuation of reservation for government doctors in PG courses in government medical hospitals.
In a big blow to government doctors, Madras High Court has ruled that admissions for post-graduate medical courses can be made purely as per the Regulations of the Medical Council of India (MCI) issued in 2000.
Justice M Sathyanarayanan, the third judge assigned to hear the case since the previous two-member bench had given a split verdict, on Saturday upheld the supremacy of the MCI.
With this, the Tamil Nadu government could not follow its own regulations enabling 50% quota for government doctors in the PG courses. Also, incentive marks should be given only to government doctors who served in remote and hilly areas, not to all government doctors as the government had been doing so far.
The government doctors had been on protest and boycotting work for the last few weeks demanding continuation of reservation for government doctors in PG courses in government medical hospitals. But the Judge has blamed the state government for the problems as it had been all along violating the MCI rules.
Citing an order passed by the Supreme Court last year, the Judge said for the best of reasons, the State had ignored it and sought to justify its stand on grounds of sentiment and sympathy. Only the government has to be blamed for the present piquant situation, the Judge added.
With Justice Sathyanarayanan’s ruling, the dissenting order passed by Justice SM Subramaniam on May 3 gets the majority view and is binding on the State government and its agencies to admit students as per Regulation 9(IV) of the Post Graduate Medical Education Regulations issued in 2000.
Saturday’s order directs authorities concerned to follow and implement Regulation 9 and more particularly, Regulation 9 [IV] and proviso therein and ensure their full compliance.
Justice Sathyanarayanan said, on an exhaustive analysis and thorough consideration and appreciation of the materials placed before him and also on independent application of mind, he was of the opinion that the directions given in the judgment dated May 3 by Justice Subramaniam was in consonance with settled legal position except with regard to identification of hilly and remote/difficult areas.
Dismissing the batch of writ appeals, the Judge observed that it was a well settled position of law that the Central government or State government could give only administrative instructions but the same would not per se lead to the presumption that they are statutory in character. Admittedly, in the case on hand, in the field of medical education, the MCI was constituted as the sole authority to oversee it and only in the event of any gaps, the administrative instructions could be issued to fill them up.
As rightly pointed out by MCI senior counsel Vijay Narayan, despite repeated pronouncements made by the Supreme Court about primacy of the MCI in respect of medical education, the State government has chosen to ignore it and framed its own guidelines in contravention and violation of statutory regulations framed under the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956. Issuance of the GO and formulation of prospectus by State government was one such instance, the court said.
TN govt docs assn not to stage stir tomorrow
Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Government Doctors Association, having a membership of about 15,000 doctors, which has called for a strike from May 8, informed Madras High Court that it has dropped it and instead would take up other forms of peaceful protest thereafter. Taking their assurance on record, the vacation bench of Justices N Kirubakaran and V Parthiban made it clear that if doctors belonging to other associations failed to withdraw their strike, it was for the State to take action against them.
“Despite the negotiations and dialogues and the Court verdict, if the doctors still go on strike, the matter will be viewed seriously and it is open to the government to act and take appropriate action in accordance with law (including the Essential Services Maintenance Act),” the judges had said. “In view of the observations made by the court and based on the assurances given by the State govt, the TNGDA has cancelled its proposed agitations,” the association submitted in its counter-affidavit filed before the bench, which made a special sitting, on Saturday. To this, Special Government Pleader Rajagopalan said the government was sincerely trying to settle the issue amicably.
The doctors had been protesting against the implementation of MCI Regulations in admission for PG medical courses for 2017-18 and wanted continuation of 50 per cent reservation for in-service candidates, working in PHCs in the rural and remote areas.