'Students suffer the most'- NMC vacancies delaying medical admissions, approvals, appeals, inspections: Amicus tells SC
Supreme Court of India
New Delhi: The central government's failure to fill up key statutory posts in the National Medical Commission (NMC) is resulting in recurring delays in medical admissions, approvals, inspections, and appeals, a Supreme Court-appointed amicus curiae said in its report, the Times of India has reported.
According to the amicus curiae, the persistent vacancies at NMC are causing these delays, and as a result, the academic calendars are being disrupted, ultimately affecting the students.
Submitting the report to the Apex Court, the amicus, senior advocate Maninder Singh, stated that despite years of reform efforts, the process of granting approvals, inspection procedure, hearing appeals, and arranging the counselling process for admission is continuously getting delayed.
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As per the latest media report by the Times of India, the Amicus pointed out that due to the delay, the schedules for medical admissions are getting stretched beyond the prescribed timelines. He highlighted that, for the academic session 2025-2026, the postgraduate admissions continued till February 2026, and the undergraduate admission process till December 2025.
Pointing out that "Most of the sufferers in these delays are the students," the report further added that with unfinished approval, renewal, and counselling processes within the prescribed timelines, the medical seats remain vacant.
In this regard, the report highlighted that permissions and renewals for the MBBS course last year were processed until November, even though the academic session commenced on September 1, 2025. The report also referred to instances where appeals relating to PG courses and seat increases became infructuous as the counselling process was completed before decisions could be taken.
According to the amicus, many of these delays are the result of persistent vacancies within the regulator and its autonomous boards. In the report, the amicus opined that due to the absence of regular office bearers, the processes such as framing regulations, processing applications, granting permissions, and deciding appeals were delayed.
"It is very unfortunate that an authority responsible for regulating standards of medical education in the country and performing various functions under the National Medical Commission (NMC) Act, 2019 is functioning without office-bearers," stated the amicus in his submission before the top court bench.
He pointed out that even after six years of the NMC Act coming into force, several statutory positions across the commission and its autonomous boards remained unfilled. The report added that the Central Government has failed to fill several key positions envisaged under the NMC Act, including the post of secretary for the prescribed tenure.
Apart from these, the amicus also expressed concerns in the report about transparency, adding that inspection reports and regulatory decisions are not being made public, even though such publication is required under statutory provisions.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health had expressed serious concern over the vacant posts at the National Medical Commission (NMC), and recommended initiating an urgent time-bound recruitment process to fill all statutory, ex officio, and encadred vacancies.
Further, taking note of the number of contractual staff members, the Parliamentary Health Panel had observed that consequent heavy reliance on such outsourced and contractual staff ultimately compromises institutional accountability, dilutes a sense of belongingness, and raises the risk of unethical practices to secure continued engagement.
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