Following state government’s abrupt decision to dissolve the MMC and appoint a registrar without an election process, the Bombay High Court (HC) has now called the respondent in the case- the state medical education department-- on September 7, 2016 for hearing and to suitably reply on the delay of notifying Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) elections.

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.

According to officials, 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.

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 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 with the law of the land.

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.

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.

The state government and the MMC have also been at 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 is being run on an ad hoc basis by a doctor, who has been appointed without a proper process of consultation by the state government followed by an election process.
 
According to sources, the decision to dissolve MMC was taken in a meeting between chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and medical education minister Girish Mahajan.