Petition in HC demands time bound verification of qualifications, certificates of all Doctors with Delhi Medical Council

New Delhi: A petition has been moved in the Delhi High Court seeking direction to the Centre and the Delhi Government to conduct a time-bound verification of medical qualifications and educational certificates of all the medical practitioners practising across the NCT of Delhi.

The plea alleged that there is an unchecked rise of quackery in Delhi. Quacks, often lacking legitimate medical qualifications, have seized the opportunity presented by the lax oversight and compromised the integrity of the State Medical Council.

The plea stated that urgent intervention of the Court in view of the recent news reports published in print as well as electronic media highlighting the fake doctors' scam at a nursing home in Delhi, NCR, and the manner in which the regulatory body had been letting them off on repeated occasions, which eventually led to the death of the various victims.

Recently two doctors, a woman posing as a surgeon, a laboratory technician, and several patients died in a sensational episode that has come to light in Delhi's posh Greater Kailash area.

Four people were arrested in connection with the deaths of two patients who underwent surgeries at a clinic in the south Delhi locality.

The plea stated that technicians at the hospital were performing surgeries posing as doctors/ surgeons, as a result of which several victims lost their lives.

Dr Neeraj Agarwal who is stated to be the proprietor of Agarwal Medical Centre is only an MBBS who was posing as a fake specialist to conduct major surgeries at the Hospital.

Plea further submitted that being an MBBS, he was also not qualified to perform surgeries.

Despite the same, he is stated to have been carrying out 3000 surgeries in a calendar year. Much before police uncovered the fake clinic racket in the posh colony of South Delhi, reportedly, at least 13 complaints had been lodged with the Delhi Medical Council (DMC) against the illegal practitioners of Aggarwal Medical Centre since the year 2011, the plea said.

Despite the various complaints filed against Dr Neeraj Agarwal and his accomplices, unfortunately, the DMC failed to act diligently and take strict action against them.

As per the records of the National Medical Commission ("NMC") and as per the police investigation, Dr Neeraj Agarwal is only an MBBS, while contrary to this, Neeraj Agarwal was granted registration of an MD by the DMC, stated the plea.

If the DMC had taken timely action against Dr Neeraj Aggarwal and his accomplices, it could have saved the lives of the many victims. Unfortunately, the Council consistently allowed them to escape with minimal or no punitive measures, the plea stated.

The petition has been moved by five petitioners, out of them one is a 6-year-old disabled child who sustained a brain injury at the hands of doctors of a private hospital in Delhi where he received treatment in the Neonatal ICU soon after his birth. The damage has caused him cerebral palsy and epilepsy. He eventually acquired a rare medical condition called "West Syndrome" and has been rendered vegetative for life. Rest four petitioners are also victims of medical malpractice and some also have lost their loved ones due to the medical malpractice.

The plea has been moved through Advocates Sachin Jain, Ajay Kumar Aggarwal and Sukrit Seth further seeking court direction to set up a High Powered Committee which may consist of Retd. Judges and independent reputed members of society monitor the process of verification, in order to ensure that the process of re-verification of doctors is done in a fair, ethical and transparent manner.

"Issue direction for an investigation into the functioning of Delhi Medical Council by some independent agencies like CBI, with regard to its alarming malpractice of granting fake registrations and shielding unqualified doctors," the plea stated.