NMC draft amendment to medical college regulations: All companies eligible to apply, mandatory corpus fund, incomplete applications to face rejection

New Delhi: Through a recent Gazette notification dated July 8, 2026, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has proposed further amendments to the Establishment of New Medical Institutions, Starting of New Medical Courses, Increase of Seats for Existing Courses and Assessment and Rating Regulations, 2023.

Releasing the proposed amendment titled "Establishment Of New Medical Institutions, Starting Of New Medical Courses, Increase Of Seats For Existing Courses & Assessment & Rating (Amendment) Regulations, 2026" or "Establishment Of New Medical Institutions Assessment & Rating (Amendment) Regulations, 2026", the Apex Medical Commission has proposed changes in Clauses 6, 9, 15, and 31 of the 2023 regulations.

These clauses specified bodies/entities eligible to apply for establishing a new medical college or starting a new medical course, documents that the applicant needs to submit to the Commission, the evaluation result and issuance of letter of approval, and penalties imposed on applicants etc.

Medical Dialogues reported that on February 17, 2026, NMC issued a gazette notification proposing draft amendments, including additions and removals of clauses, to the Establishment of Medical Institutions, Assessment and Rating Regulations 2023. 

The draft issued in February had also specified NMC's proposed changes in the eligibility criteria, modifications in document requirements, penalties imposed on applicants, etc. Now, NMC has released new draft regulations on July 8, 2026, and has invited comments, objections, and suggestions from stakeholders.

Also Read: NMC proposes amendments to Establishment of New Medical Institutions, Assessment and Rating regulations 2023

What are the changes proposed by NMC? 

In the Establishment of Medical Institutions, Assessment & Rating Regulations,2023, the Apex Medical Commission has proposed the following changes:

♦ Changes in Eligibility Criteria: 

(1) Clause 6(a) shall be deleted.

According to the said Clause 6(a), the Central Government is eligible to apply for establishing a new medical college or medical institution or to start a new course or courses in medicine.

(2) Clause 6(g) shall be substituted by “A Company duly incorporated under the Companies Act, 2013 or any other corresponding law in force during its establishment.

Currently, under Clause 6(g), "A Section 8 Company duly incorporated under the Companies Act, 2013 or any other corresponding law in force during its establishment" is eligible to apply for establishing a new medical college or medical institution or to start a new course or courses in medicine.

(3) After Clause 6(g), a new Clause 6(h) shall be inserted as: “A Trust registered under the respective statute meant to establish and regulate trusts in the respective State.”

♦ Modified Documentary Requirements:

Under the 2023 regulations, Clause 9 specifies the documents that the applicant medical college needs to submit to the Commission. Currently, as per Clause 9 under the 2023 regulations,

No application submitted by the eligible entity shall be entertained unless it is accompanied with –

a. Essentiality Certificate (EC) issued by the concerned State Government or Union Territory administration or the appropriate authority as the case may be unless otherwise specified. The EC shall be valid at the time of application; and

b. A Consent of Affiliation (CoA) letter obtained from a recognized university, issued in the name of the applicant entity in writing. The CoA shall be valid at the time of application; and

c. Documentary proof indicating the establishment of a corpus fund by the entity dedicatedly applicable to functioning of the new medical institution year after year; and

d. A solvency certificate issued by a Chartered Accountant within ninety days prior to the last date of submission of the application as mandated by the Notification issued by the MARB; and

e. Documents by way of proof that such reasonable area of land is either owned or arranged under lease or such other arrangement by the eligible entity; and

f. Capabilities with regard to the provision of required basic infrastructure, administrative and financial support of the applicant, if the eligible entity is other than Central or a State Government or Union Territory administration; and

g. Documentary proof of owning or running a hospital of required capacity as indicated in the MSRs.

h. Proof indicating remittance of prescribed application fee and bank guarantee; and

i. Any such other documents are to be notified from time to time by the MARB.

However, NMC has proposed the following changes in Clause 9:

(4) Clause 9, “No application submitted by the eligible entity shall be entertained unless it is accompanied with-"shall be substituted by “The following documents shall be submitted by the eligible entity-”.

(5) Clause 9(a) shall be deleted

(6) Clause 9(b) shall be substituted as: “A Consent of Affiliation (CoA) letter obtained from a recognized university, issued in the name of the applicant/ the Medical College/ the entity in writing. The CoA shall be valid at the time of submission of the application; and

(7) Clause 9(c) shall be deleted.

(8) Clause 9(d) shall be amended as: A solvency certificate based on the last completed financial year issued by a Chartered Accountant within ninety days prior to the last date of invitation of the application.

(9) Clause 9 (k) shall be inserted as:" Infrastructure and other statutory requirements as per the regulations shall be complete at the time of application. Temporary arrangement for the Hospital and college building shall not be permitted. A work-in-progress status of the applicant institute shall not be considered for further processing of the application."

(10) Explanation 1 Of Clause 9 Shall Be Deleted

Under the existing regulations, Explanation-1 specifies : "the period of validity of the EC indicated in (a) above shall be in accordance with that mentioned by the issuing authority for a period of three years from the date of issue or an earlier date if the issuing authority has specified."

(11) The first proviso after Explanation 3, under clause 9, shall be amended as: “Provided any incomplete applications received, meaning applications without the mandated documents specified in the present Regulation or any such other documents as notified from time to time by the MARB or at time of notification of inviting the application by MARB, shall not constitute a valid/eligible scheme as per Section 28(2) of the National Medical Commission Act, 2019, and the same shall be rejected by the MARB without any opportunity as mandated under Section 28(3) of the NMC Act and clause 13 of this regulation.”

Currently, the first provision after Explanation 3, under clause 9 states: "Provided any incomplete applications received, meaning applications without the mandated documents specified in the present Regulation, shall be rejected by the MARB."

♦ Mandatory Corpus Fund for Medical Colleges: 

NMC has proposed that at the time of submitting applications for establishment of new medical colleges or courses, the applicant shall need to submit an undertaking for earmarking a corpus fund dedicated to the functioning of the new medical institute. The amount of such Corpus Fund shall be determined by the Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB) of the Commission and shall be communicated through notice. Further, the amount of such Corpus Fund may be revised from time to time, and whenever directed by the MARB, the college will have to submit documentary proof for the said fund. 

In this regard, NMC in the Draft Regulations mentioned the following:

(12) A “new para” shall be inserted after “first para” and before “the first proviso” of clause 15 as: “The applicant/entity shall submit an undertaking at the time of submission of the application for earmarking a corpus fund dedicatedly applicable to the functioning of the new medical institution. Further, all Medical Colleges already running will also have to maintain a corpus fund dedicatedly applicable to the functioning of the medical college. The amount of such Corpus fund shall be determined by the Medical Assessment & Rating Board and shall be communicated through Notice. The amount of the corpus fund shall be subject to revision from time to time. The College will have to submit the documentary proof whenever directed by the MARB.”

Under the 2023 regulations, Clause 15 States the following:

"15. Evaluation result and issuance of letter of approval – based on the assessment carried out; the MARB shall communicate its decision of permission or otherwise to the eligible entity within a period of six months from the date of receipt of the completed application.

Provided if approved, the MARB shall issue a letter of permission to the eligible entity under its seal, with such conditions as it may deem fit.

Provided further, the letter of permission shall also be notified on the National Medical Commission‘s website."

♦ Penalties Imposed on Applicants:

(13) The clause 31(c) shall be amended as: Withholding processing or rejection of application(s) for any new scheme/s or for an increase in seats for that academic year or for such number of years

Clause 31 specifies the penalties imposed on medical colleges. According to Clause 31(c) under the 2023 Regulations, "Withholding processing of application for any new scheme/s for that academic year or for a such number of years."

Meanwhile, Clause 31(h) states that "Any attempt to pressurize MARB or NMC through individuals or agency will lead to immediate halt of the processing the application/request by the medical Institution."

Regarding Clause 31(h), NMC has proposed the following:

(14) The clause 31(h) shall be amended as: “Any attempt to pressurize MARB or NMC through individuals or agency(ies) will lead to immediate halt of the processing or rejection of the application(s)/request(s) by the medical Institution.”

Publishing the draft amendment regulations, NMC has asked the stakeholders to submit their objections and suggestions within 30 days from the date of the Gazette notification.

"The National Medical Commission proposes certain amendments to “Establishment of New Medical Institutions, Assessment & Rating Regulations, 2023”.The draft Regulation amending the Regulation in Clause 6, 9, 15 and 31 have been prepared and approved by the competent authority following due procedures is hereby published for information of all stakeholders likely to be affected thereby and notice is hereby given that the said draft Regulation (amendment) shall be taken into consideration on or after the expiry of a period of thirty (30) days from the date on which the copies of the Gazette of India containing these draft Regulation (amendment) are made available to public," it said.

"Objections and suggestions which may be received from any person within the period specified above will be considered by the National Medical Commission," added the Commission.

NMC said that the objections and suggestions, if any, may be addressed to the Director (MARB), NMC, Room No.003, Guest House, Ground Floor, National Medical Commission, Pocket –14, Sector-8, Dwarka, Phase-1, New Delhi-77 and sent by e-mail in the prescribed format attached below:

Format for seeking Suggestions/Comments:

"The objections and suggestion be sent only on the above e-mail ID, and objections/suggestions received in any other means, i.e. physical or through other modes, will not be entertained," the Commission specified.

To view the Draft Amendment, click on the link below:

https://medicaldialogues.in/pdf_upload/2026/07/13/nmc-draft-amendment-wrt-establishment-of-new-medical-institutions-assessment-rating-359401.pdf

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