Madras Medical Council Registration Act revamped, draft submitted to State

Chennai: Around nine months after the Madras High Court's directions, the Draft of the amended Madras Medical Council Registration Act, 1914 has finally been submitted to the Tamil Nadu State Health Department.

Even though the HC bench had directed the State Government to revamp the "archaic" Madras Medical Registration Act, 1914 within three months, the amended rules have been prepared more than six months after the lapse of the deadline.

Confirming the development, a senior law department official told TOI, "We have handed over the draft to the health department. We are waiting for a feedback from them."

Meanwhile, the doctors' bodies including the Indian Medical Association and the TN Government Doctors Association have urged the Government to publish the draft notification on the website.

They have pointed out that delays in the amendment ultimately result in delayed elections for the Tamil Nadu Medical Council, which is a statutory body formed under the provisions of the Madras Medical Registration Act of 1914.

Also Read: Tamil Nadu Medical Council Elections: Madras HC issues notice to State, NMC on plea demanding online polls

Last year, the Madras High Court bench ordered the revamping of the 1914 Act while considering a plea alleging corruption in the conduct of Tamil Nadu Medical Council elections.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that a Madurai-based government doctor approached the Madras HC praying for a direction to stay the Gazette notification on October 19 for holding the election using ballot papers. Filing the plea, the doctor had demanded an online voting system.

During the course of the hearing, the petitioner submitted before the Court that the Council was still relying on the "archaic" Act to conduct the polls. As per Section 5(1), among the 15 members of the Council, one was to be elected by the Senate of the Madras Medical University, one from the Senate of the Andhra University, one had to be a practicing doctor from Vishakapatnam Medical College.

Taking note of this, the Court observed that the reference to these was because of the Act, which was formulated before the linguistic division of the State. Therefore, opining that there was a need for a complete revamp, the HC bench orally remarked, "How can you conduct elections with such archaic rules? This was for Madras presidency. Change the rules and then conduct elections."

Responding to the Court's order, the Advocate General for the State Government submitted that the State was considering the issue and sought three months' time to complete the task. Thereafter, the Court had ordered to conduct of the polls after three months and after revamping the rules. At that time, the Court had made it clear that the order would not impact the working of the present office bearers. Apart from this, the Court also wanted the Government to ensure that the medical registry is updated. 

As per the latest media report by the Times of India, after several rounds of deliberations and discussions, the law department of Tamil Nadu has amended the Act. The draft of the amended Act has been handed over to the Health Department for feedback.

At present, the State Government and its nominees have the controlling authority of the Council. The Council continues to register and issue licenses to doctors who have pursued MBBS from National Medical Commission (NMC) recognized institutes. 

However, as per the doctors, the committee has not swiftly acted on the complaints of violations of professional conduct, negligence, and unethical practices by doctors.

Commenting on the matter, the former president of the Council, Dr. K Senthil told the Daily, "We want rules that will make the council an elected body with statutory powers."

"The government must ensure that the council has elected members as a majority. Government nominees can’t be a majority," he further mentioned.

Also Read: Archaic Madras Medical Registration Act to be revamped, Medical Council elections deferred by 3 months