NEW DELHI: Despite directions from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) two months ago, the National Medical Commission (NMC) members are yet to declare their assets online. The PMO directed the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to take “appropriate action” on a complaint against non-disclosure of assets by NMC members, including its chairman, on October 23.
In fact, NMC has written to the ministry — at least twice — to change the disclosure format. According to the letters, some members have reservations with the present format, where they have to give complete details of land, jewellery, investments in banks, insurance policies, etc.
As per the NMC Act 2019, the chairman and members must declare their assets and liabilities on the official website. However, despite several RTIs in this regard, the NMC chairman and its members have failed to declare their assets on the website, said Dr K V Babu, who has been doggedly pursuing the matter for months.
“It is clear that the NMC has been sitting over the assets disclosure for the past two-and-half years, and it seems that the health ministry, which is legally mandated to enforce the NMC Act, is sleeping over it for more than six months, despite several RTIs in this regard,” the RTI activist said.
“What is more shocking is that even after the communication from the PMO, both the NMC and health ministry continue to drag the issue. Hope the NMC will comply with the NMC Act, given the communication from the PMO, and non-complying officers are removed,” he added.
Babu said the RTI replies have also revealed the unwillingness of the NMC members to declare their assets on the public platform.
“If the Supreme Court and High Court judges can declare their assets publicly, why can’t the NMC members and its chairman?” the activist asked.
He said NMC members had submitted prescribed declarations of their assets to the NMC only after his RTIs. But, the medical body has been persistently stonewalling the issue of declaring it on the official website.
“They have tried to evade the rule and in this regard have written to the health ministry first on June 9 and then on December 12 to change the format of the disclosures, saying that some officials have reservations.”
The RTI reply of December 22 mentions that “about uploading of the said forms in NMC’s website, there have been reservations for uploading some personal information of the officers, as prescribed in the forms given in the said rules, in the public domain like complete details of lands, jewellery, investments in banks/financial institutions/insurance policy i.e.numbers, addresses etc. Given the above concerns, it is requested to review the prescribed forms given in the said rules.”
Babu had first flagged the issue with the Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and wrote to him on August 15. He has been persistently following up on the issue since April 6, 2023, when he filed his first RTI. He subsequently filed RTIs on June 3, July 31 and August 16.
The RTI activist said the NMC members can be removed from their positions for not complying with the law of the land, and even their medical license can be cancelled.
This can be done per Code of Medical Ethics Regulations 1.9 Evasion of Legal Restrictions, which says that 'the physician shall observe the laws of the country in regulating the practice of medicine and shall also not assist others in evading such laws.'
The NMC came into being in 2020 after the erstwhile Medical Council of India (MCI) was replaced following sharp criticism from the Supreme Court and the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health in 2016, which said that it was not transparent in functioning and was plagued with corruption.
An act of Parliament then constituted the National Medical Commission Act 2019, which came into force on September 25, 2020, by a gazette notification. It has 33 members, and the tenure is for four years. At the moment, four positions are vacant.
As the main reason for MCI's dissolution was corruption, a specific section about assets/liability disclosure on the part of its members, including the chairperson, was included in the NMC Act 2019.