The inspection procedures at the ISM educational institutions in the country for the academic year 2014-15 may be delayed due to the Nainital High Court's direction to the Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM), following the removal of the president of the Council, Dr Veda Prakash Tyagi by the department of Ayush in July last year.

According to the court directive, the Council can discharge only day to day duties and no policy decision could be taken without the permission of the court. For the purpose of day to day affairs, department of Ayush has given the charge of the president to the elected vice-president (Unani) of the Council till a new president is elected.

The Central Council has to renew the affiliations of all colleges, sanction new colleges, allow more UG and PG seats besides increasing the existing seats on a time bound manner to facilitate the academic institutions to function on time. Before commencing the courses in May/June the inspection and affiliation processes have to be fulfilled. Normally the inspections would start in February every year and the files would be sent to Ayush in March for scrutiny. If any anomaly is found, the college authorities would be called for hearing and documentation. The department will publish the final list in April or May to start the classes in June. This routine process is likely to be delayed this year due to the pending case in the court, said members of the CCIM.

According to them, currently the Council is not able to take any independent decision on any matter and everything has to be informed to the court for prior sanction.

Dr V P Tyagi, who was elected president of the Council on July 5, 2012 for a five year term, was removed from the post by department of Ayush on July 27, 2013 for having found that his membership with the Bharatiya Chikitsa Parishad (Ayush Medical Council) of Uttarakhand was not renewed at the time of his election. To be a member of the Council one should be a registered medical practitioner in any of the states in India.

Speaking to Pharmabiz, Dr Tyagi said he was an elected member (Ayurveda) from the state of Uttarakhand and also the elected vice president (Ayurveda) of the CCIM during the time of his election as president of the Council. Further he clarified that he was elected to CCIM in 1995 from Rajasthan and continued upto 2011, and later elected to the Council from Uttarakhand and was continuing in that position.

The allegation against him was that he had not renewed his registration with the Uttarakhand Medical Council. Since Dr Tyagi studied and worked in Rajasthan, he had membership with the Rajasthan State Medical Board, and after his retirement the registration was shifted to the state of Uttarakhand. He told Pharmabiz that the dispute regarding his registration was resolved in his favour by the High Court of Rajasthan vide judgment dated April 4, 2013 passed in writ petition number 3875 of 2006.

After his removal from the post of president of the council, Dr Tyagi filed a case with the Nainital High Court. He quoted that there was an order of Rajastan High Court which specifically said that his registration in Rajasthan would continue until he was registered with Uttarakhand council. So he claimed that he was a registered medical practitioner at the time of president election. But the department of Ayush removed him from the post of president of the CCIM and gave the charge to one of the vice-presidents.

On December 12, 2013, the Division Bench of the Nainital High Court issued a direction to the central council  to maintain the status quo with clarification that CCIM should discharge only day to day duties and restrained it from taking any policy decisions till the writ petition No.1754 of 2013, filed by Dr Tyagi, is finally disposed.

Later CCIM also moved an application with the High Court to which the single judge of the curt issued an order on January 4 this year which permits inspections at the academic institutions on certain conditions. The order says that the inspections could be carried out only by an ‘authorized committee’.

“Only primary inspections as provided under Section 13-A and 13-C of the Indian Medicine Central Council Act, 1970 of colleges where such inspection has not been made already by the Council, alone are to be held. CCIM will not forward the inspection report to the Central Government, and no further action on such inspection report will be taken by any authority until ordered by the Court. Inspections so carried out by CCIM shall be subject to the final determination of Writ Petition No.1754 of 2013”, says the order.