CPS courses Row: Bombay HC Asks Parties to Look for Acceptable Solution
Mumbai: While considering the pleas concerning the recognition of the College of Physicians and Surgeons (CPS), the Bombay High Court asked the parties to look for an acceptable solution.
The pleas in this connection came up for hearing before the Bombay HC bench recently. One of the pleas was filed by CPS challenging the derecognition of 26 postgraduate diploma courses which were deleted from the schedule of Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) last year.
Apart from this, the High Court also heard the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Dr. Pingle seeking an order restraining CPS from affiliating or permitting any clinics and hospitals to admit the students for its post-graduate diploma or fellowship courses. Dr. Pingle claimed that under the pretext of being an examining body, CPS was involved in conducting nearly 39 unrecognised courses.
TOI has reported that fixing the matter for further hearing on July 25, the HC bench asked the parties to inform about any acceptable solution by both sides. It clarified that if such a solution could not be found, the matter would be continued to be heard and it would be decided on merit.
Also Read: 10 CPS courses to restart in Maharashtra
As per the latest media report by the Times of India, senior counsel Rafique Dada represented CPS and submitted to the HC bench of Justices K R Shriram and Jitendra Jain that the College was a 100-year-old institution and had conferred degrees to thousands of doctors with postgraduate qualifications and the recognition was causing a grave injustice to them as they were unable to admit a single student since the academic year 2023.
Filing the plea, CPS was seeking the Court's permission to admit students in the current academic year i.e. 2024-2025. On the other hand, the counsel for Dr. Pingle, Advocate VM Thorat argued that initially only 10 CPS qualifications were recognised by the erstwhile Medical Council of India (MCI) only for admitting students in five colleges- three Mumbai based institutes including Government Medical College, Seth G.S. Medical College, T.N. Medical College, and B.J. Medical College, Pune and Ahmedabad.
He further submitted that later CPS started admitting 1200 students every year to 178 hospitals, beyond what was permitted by erstwhile MCI, now National Medical Commission (NMC).
Referring to this, Advocate Thorat, appearing for Dr. Pingle, stated that after an earlier PIL by Arun Date, 10 courses were recognised (6 FCPS, 3 Diploma and 1 MCPS) back in 2010. Pointing out that these courses were brought under a State law, Thorat added that the State lacked the legal competence to do so, since the medical education was covered by a Central legislation - Indian Medical Council Act.
Dr. Pingle's counsel further submitted that certain CPS PG courses are significant because of its complicated and vast syllabus and they require to be a full degree course and therefore, such courses could not be conducted in short diploma condense courses. Advocate Thorat further added that if CPS was ready to submit itself to the NMC or the National Board of Examinations which conducts the DNB courses, the petitioners in the PIL would not have any objections.
Taking note of these submissions, the Court suggested the parties to inform about any solution acceptable by both sides before the next date of hearing i.e. on July 25, 2024. The bench clarified that otherwise the matter would be continued to be heard and would be decided on merits.
The Court's suggestion was also accepted by the State government pleader Poornima Kantharia and National Medical Commission’s Advocate Ganesh Gole.
The CPS Controversy:
Established in 1912, CPS Mumbai is an autonomous body that imparts Postgraduate medical education and offers fellowship, diploma, and certificate courses for medical professionals. For the Diploma courses, the tenure is two years; in case of Fellowship, the tenure is three years. After obtaining the qualification granted by CPS Mumbai, the practitioners are allowed to register themselves as specialists in the concerned speciality.
CPS courses have been facing major controversies for a long time. Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that referring to significant gaps in the standards or institutes offering CPS courses, the medical education department of Maharashtra previously wrote to the Union Health Ministry asking for its opinion on whether counselling can be conducted for around 1,100 CPS seats.
Writing to the Centre, the department referred to the inspection of the Maharashtra Medical Council conducted last year and how during the inspection, MMC had found "severe deficiencies" in several institutes. In fact, the Central Government has also set up an eight-member committee to look into the matter.
The controversy continued further and then the Postgraduate Medical Education Board (PGMEB) of the National Medical Commission (NMC) recommended to the Union Health Ministry to withdraw the popular DPB- Diploma in Pathology and Bacteriology, DCH - Diploma in Child Health and DGO- Diploma Gynecology and Obstetrics courses run by CPS from the next academic year.
After NMC, the National Board of Examinations (NBE) also offered rejection to the CPS courses by refusing to bring them under the aegis of the NBE. At this outset, States including Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Karnataka were reportedly considering decreasing the intake for the CPS courses or discontinuing them.
Last year, the Maharashtra Government then de-recognised the courses offered by CPS and asked the medical institutes and hospitals not to admit students for any of the 26 diplomas or fellowships offered by CPS, Mumbai.
Ultimately the matter reached the Court and filing a plea, CPS argued that 10 courses which were recognised under NMC Act 2019 cannot be de-recognised by the State. Thereafter, in December 2023, the State filed an affidavit in the Bombay HC and stated that it would review its decision.
Thereafter, opposing the plea by the College of Physicians and Surgeons, which challenged the State Government's decision to de-recognise the CPS courses, former MMC member Dr. Suhas Pingle had approached the Bombay HC. However, this year, Maharashtra Medical Education Department issued a gazette notification on March 15 reintroducing the 10 CPS courses dermatology, midwifery and gynaecology, gynaecology, pathology, surgery, medicine, ophthalmology and diploma courses in gynaecology and obstetrics, pathology and bacteriology, and child health.
Earlier this year, challenging the three notifications that allowed the institute to continue its 19 medical courses, the former president of the Maharashtra branch of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and a former member of the Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) approached the Bombay High Court.
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