Medical Council has the power to impose any punishment on doctors as it deems necessary: Delhi HC

New Delhi: Medical Councils are empowered to impose any punishment on a doctor for professional misconduct as deemed necessary, the Delhi High Court bench recently stated.

Such punishment may also include the removal of the name of the concerned doctor from the rolls of the register of Medical Council permanently or for a specified.

The Delhi HC bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad made this observation while referring to Section 8.2. of the Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002.

It states, "8.2 It is made clear that any complaint with regard to professional misconduct can be brought before the appropriate Medical Council for Disciplinary action. Upon receipt of any complaint of professional misconduct, the appropriate Medical Council would hold an enquiry and give opportunity to the registered medical practitioner to be heard in person or by pleader. If the medical practitioner is found to be guilty of committing professional misconduct, the appropriate Medical Council may award such punishment as deemed necessary or may direct the removal altogether or for a specified period, from the register of the name of the delinquent registered practitioner. Deletion from the Register shall be widely publicized in local press as well as in the publications of different Medical Associations/ Societies/Bodies."

Case Background: 

The HC bench was considering a plea by a complainant/petitioner, who approached the High Court bench challenging the order of the erstwhile MCI, which only issued a warning to 2 doctors for improper issuance of medical certificate.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that previously the petitioner had approached the UP State Medical Council against those two doctors -Dr. Kumar and Dr. Lalchandani- for issuing a certificate on 09.07.2014 stating that the petitioner was suffering from Paranoid Schizophrenia.

The petitioner/complainant, who herself is a doctor, alleged that the concerned two doctors issued the certificate even without examining the petitioner/complainant.

While considering the matter, the State Medical Council of Uttar Pradesh issued warning to the concerned doctors asking them not to issue certificates/opinions without examining the patients. 

Challenging this decision, the complainant doctor approached the erstwhile Medical Council of India. MCI took note of the fact that the Uttar Pradesh Medical Council warned the doctors not to issue any opinion letters of official letterhead in future. Therefore, the MCI Committee upheld the decision of the State Medical Council.

However, the MCI order was also challenged by the petitioner/complainant, who approached the Delhi High Court. The petitioner's counsel contended that Regulation 7.7 of the Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002, does not postulate any punishment by way of warning rather the only punishment that is stipulated under the Regulations is of removal of the Doctor from the rolls of the Medical Council.

On the other hand, the counsel for NMC, which replaced erstwhile MCI, referred to Regulation 8.2 of the Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002, to contend that the Medical Council has the power to award any punishment as deemed necessary and it has also the power to award the punishment of removal of name from the rolls.

The Court perused the concerned regulations. Regulation 7.7 states, "7.7 Signing Professional Certificates, Reports and other Documents: Registered medical practitioners are in certain cases bound by law to give, or may from time to time be called upon or requested to give certificates, notification, reports and other documents of similar character signed by them in their professional capacity for subsequent use in the courts or for administrative purposes etc. Such documents, among others, include the ones given at Appendix –4. Any registered practitioner who is shown to have signed or given under his name and authority any such certificate, notification, report or document of a similar character which is untrue, misleading or improper, is liable to have his name deleted from the Register."

The bench also took note of Regulation 8.2 of the said regulations which mentions that "If the medical practitioner is found to be guilty of committing professional misconduct, the appropriate Medical Council may award such punishment as deemed necessary or may direct the removal altogether or for a specified period, from the register of the name of the delinquent registered practitioner."

Taking note of these rules, the bench opined that "...it cannot be said that for the misconduct as prescribed in Regulation 7.7 of the Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002, the only penalty that can be levied is one of removal from the rolls..."

"Regulation 8.2 gives power to the Medical Council to impose penalties in case of misconduct including that, which is one mentioned in Regulation 7.7 of the Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002," further noted the bench.

Taking note of the rules and also perusing the above-mentioned judgments, the Delhi HC bench opined,

"The contention of the Petitioner that the only penalty which can be imposed on a Doctor who gives a certificate which is untrue, misleading or improper is the removal of the name of the Doctor from the rolls of the register of Medical Council cannot be accepted."

"Regulation 7.7 only postulates that a Doctor who gives an untrue, misleading or improper certificate can be removed from the rolls of the register of Medical Council. However, it does not mean that that the only punishment that can be given to such a Doctor is the removal of the name from the rolls of the register of Medical Council. Regulation 8.2 on the other hand deals with punishments that can be imposed on a Doctor for his professional misconduct. Regulation 8.2 gives power to the Medical Council to impose any punishment as is deemed necessary which can also include the removal of the name of the Doctor from the rolls of the register of Medical Council permanently or for a specified period," it further observed.

With these observations, the HC bench dismissed the plea.

To view the HC order, click on the link below:

https://medicaldialogues.in/pdf_upload/delhi-hc-order-223594.pdf

Also Read: Fake Medical Certificates by Doctors: Removal of name from Medical Register not the only Penalty, says court