The Supreme Court has given two weeks time to the petitioner in Malay Ganguly V/s Medical Council of India (MCI) case, to consolidate the affidavits submitted by the state governments with regard to the establishment of Medical Council in the states. The hearing took place on July 21, 2003.

The public interest litigation had tried to highlight the absence of medical councils in some of the states that had led to the SC directive for a status report from all state governments. The Court had during the last hearing asked the governments of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Delhi, Orissa, Punjab, Pondicherry, Sikkim, Tripura, West Bengal, UTS of Andaman, Lakshadweep, Dadra, & Nagar Haveli, Daman & DIU for status reports.

Status reports were also sought from central government and medical councils of Delhi, J & K, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan and West Bengal.

It is known that almost all states had responded to the directive following which the court has given two weeks time to the petitioner to go through the files before the next hearing.

The court has felt the need for state medical councils to initiate swift action against erring doctors. "It hardly requires to be impressed that on occasions there are aberrations on the part of the concerned Medical Practitioners and for such aberrations necessary action is required to be taken immediately otherwise noble profession may suffer because of unscrupulous practices by few." It has noted.