The Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) which serves as an ethical watchdog of medical practice in the state is planning to move to the Bombay High Court (HC) following state government’s abrupt decision to dissolve the MMC and appoint a registrar without an election process.
The quasi-judicial autonomous body - MMC which represents 85,000 doctors in the state has been looking into cases of medical negligence for the past several years excluding the term between 1998 and 2010 when it remained defunct following an HC order.
Dissolving of the state council has in fact not come as a surprise for the MMC officials as the state government deliberately delayed in giving directive to hold MMC elections despite being given three MMC reminders before the expiry of the 5-year Council's tenure on May 21, 2016, said an official associated with the development.
Besides the rumblings in the MMC currently, the present council elected five years back had fought a two-year court battle with the state government to finally assume office in 2011.
MMC had remained defunct from 1998 to 2010 following a Bombay High Court order that suspended it due to irregularities in the election of members and maintenance of register which led to the backlog of over 600 cases.
Indian Medical Association (IMA) and MMC had petitioned a month ago to the HC about putting in place a full time administrator and also notification of MMC elections by the state government in the same petition when it completed its 5-year term on May 21, 2016.
MMC and the Medical Council of India (MCI) had also petitioned to the Bombay High Court opposing crosspathy practised in the state allowing Ayurveda and Homoeopathy practitioners to prescribe allopathy medicines which is not in accordance to the law of the land.
The state government and the MMC have also been at the loggerheads for several years with state government recently also serving a notice for certain irregularities in the council’s administration.
With delay in notification of elections, administration of the council was being run on an ad hoc basis by an ayurvedic doctor. Compounding the problem further, the registrar also held additional charge of Maharashtra Council of Indian Medicine (MCIM) in contravention to the provisions of the MMC Act.
According to sources, the decision to dissolve was taken in a meeting between Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Medical Education Minister Girish Mahajan.