Category : General ( Medical Council of India )

New Delhi: Endorsing a Parliamentary Standing Committee report of 2016 that medical education and profession in the country is at its ‘ lowest ebb" and suffering from " total system failure" due to corruption and decay, the Supreme Court on Monday used its rare and extraordinary powers under the Constitution to set up a three member committee, headed by former Chief Justice of India R.M.Lodha, to oversee the functioning of the Medical Council of India (MCI) for at least a year.
A Constitution Bench, led by Justice Anil R.Dave, in a 165-page judgment, said that the apex court was constrained to exercise its extraordinary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution as the government had not acted on the report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare.
Its report on ‘ The functioning of the Medical Council of India ‘ was tabled in Parliament on March 8, 2016.
The judgment referred to the parliamentary panel report, which described the MCI as an "ossified and opaque body" unable to cope with the "humongous" task of managing medical education in over 400 colleges across the country.
" Quality of medical education is at its lowest ebb, the right type of health professionals were not able to meet the basic health needs of the country. Products coming out of medical colleges are ill-prepared to serve in poor resource settings like Primary Health Centres. Graduates lacked competence in performing basic health care tasks. Unethical practices continued to grow. The MCI was not able to spearhead any serious reforms in medical education," the judgment said, citing the panel report.

( Madurai edition of The Hindu, Tuesday, May 3, 2016 )
Courtesy : MPS