SC allows Centre to set up doctors committee to supervise Medical Council

To supervise the functioning of the Medical Council of India, the Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed Centre to appoint five eminent doctors in the Oversight Committee for regulation of medical education

NEW DELHI: To supervise the functioning of the Medical Council of India, the Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed Centre to appoint five eminent doctors in the Oversight Committee for regulation of medical education and profession in the country.

The doctors’ committee will replace the court-appointed panel headed by former Chief Justice RM Lodha, whose term had also come to an end. Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar gave the names of five doctors to be the member of the committee which includes AIIMS director Randeep Guleria, professor and head of paediatrics at AIIMS V K Paul, professor and head of endocrinology Nikhil Tandon, director of PGIMER Chandigarh Jagat Ram and director of NIMHANS BN Gangadharan.

“We accept the proposal made to this court by Centre. We grant liberty to the Union of India to nominate one of the members of the reconstituted Oversight Committee, as its chairperson,” a five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar said. “They all are people of impeccable integrity. But the whole issue is whether they have time for all this. They do not have time for CJI leave alone MCI”, Chief Justice JS Khehar smilingly told the SG.

The court also listed the duties to be done by the Oversight Committee and said that — it will have the authority to oversee the functioning of Medical Council of India, all decisions/recommendations of MCI will require approval of Oversight Committee before they are communicated to the Central government, the committee will be free to issue appropriate remedial directions for improvement in MCI. The committee will function till the Central government puts in place any other appropriate mechanism, or until further orders.

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