TN State Medical Council Bill 2024 tabled
Chennai: The Tamil Nadu State Medical Council Bill, 2024, which proposes to expand the medical council by including representations from the private medical colleges, was tabled by the State before the Assembly on Wednesday.
This bill seeks to replace the Tamil Nadu Medical Registration Act, 1914 and it was among the 12 bills that were introduced in the Assembly House on Wednesday, adds PTI. The TN State Medical Council Act, 2024, seeks to repeal the TN Act IV of 1914 and re-enact a new one in its place.
Apart from including representations from the private medical colleges, the newly introduced bill also makes representation of women in the council mandatory.
In the legislature, the State Health Minister Ma Subramanian said that the new bill was proposed because the State Medical Council was established under the TN Medical Registration Act 1914 from the pre-Independent era, which was enacted when there was a Madras Presidency and much before the reorganisation of the States on a linguistic basis.
As per the latest media report by The Times of India, the new bill proposes to increase the number of members from 14 to 20. Further, it will also have nine members elected by the registered medical practitioners, among whom at least three should be women.
Further, it has also been proposed in the bill that the new council shall have representation from all the government medical colleges, as opposed to the current situation when only Madras Medical College and Stanley Medical College have a presence at the council.
It also states that the State Medical Council will have the authority to acquire, hold, and dispose of property. It will also maintain a state register of Registered Medical Practitioners and it should meet at least once every three months.
The 1914 Act was enacted when the Madras Presidency comprised larger areas including parts of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Therefore, it had several provisions that were outdated. As per the old Act, including nominated members in the Council from old geographical areas that are no longer parts of Tamil Nadu were required.
Commenting on the introduction of the new bill, Dr. K Senthil, the former president of TNMC told The New Indian Express, "I hope it will be cleared by the governor at the earliest."
Back in 2022, the Madras HC had 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 had 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 had orally remarked, "How can you conduct elections with such archaic rules? This was for Madras presidency. Change the rules and then conduct elections."
Granting time to the State, the Court had ordered to conduct the polls after three months and after revamping the rules. Around nine months after the Madras High Court's directions, the Draft of the amended Madras Medical Council Registration Act, 1914 was finally submitted to the Tamil Nadu State Health Department last year.
Also Read: Madras Medical Council Registration Act revamped, draft submitted to State
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