Make Medical College Assessment reports public: CIC gives deadline to National Medical Commission
New Delhi: Reiterating its earlier stand, the Central Information Commission (CIC) has once again directed the National Medical Commission (NMC) to regularly upload the assessment reports of all the medical colleges on the NMC website, in compliance with the provisions of Section 4 of the RTI Act to boost transparency and in the larger public interest concerning the quality of medical education in the country. With this, the CIC has given a deadline to the apex medical commission.
However, CIC clarified that the NMC needs to ensure that these reports are uploaded after taking into consideration the exemptions listed under section 8 (1) and Section 9 of the RTI Act.
"Commission notes that the importance of medical colleges assessment report lies on the fact that these reports reveal the date of inspection, details of infrastructure of the concerned medical college/institution, including number of beds in each department and bed occupancy rate, number of in-patient, outpatient and also department-wise total number of faculty in the concerned teaching hospital and the college," CIC mentioned.
"Commission observes that disclosing these assessment reports is essential for the aspiring medical students seeking admission into medical courses as it allows them to make informed decisions while choosing the college for admission during counselling process," it further highlighted.
Therefore, directing the Apex Medical Commission to upload these reports within 30 days, the CIC order dated 15.07.2024,
"The Commission hereby reiterates its earlier advisory issued to the NMC to ensure that information about the assessment reports of all the medical colleges should be regularly uploaded on their website after taking into consideration the exemptions listed under section 8 (1) and Section 9 of the RTI Act, in compliance with the provisions of the Section 4 of the RTI Act to boost transparency and in the larger public interest concerning the quality of medical education in the country. A copy of information uploaded should be made available to the Appellant for his perusal and necessary action. The above direction should be complied within 30 days from the date of receipt of this order under intimation to the Commission. No further action lies."
These directions were issued by the Commission while considering an appeal filed by Dr Mohammed Khader Meeran, who had sought the attested copies of the infrastructure assessment reports of all the medical colleges. NMC had been denying to make any of these reports public on the ground that it was exempted from doing so as these reports included declarations made by the faculty and staff of colleges containing personal information.
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The Issue:
After NMC superseded the erstwhile Medical Council of India (MCI), the NMC website replaced the MCI website in the new domain. Along with this, the data and other documents uploaded by MCI including the college assessment reports of the previous academic year were also removed from the MCI website.
Raising this issue, Dr. Meeran had previously filed an RTI application and sought the medical college assessment reports for the academic year 2020-2021 and 2021-2022.
However, it was denied by NMC on the grounds that "the information sought is very voluminous and scattered in various files. It would disproportionately divert the resource of MARB of NMC."
Dissatisfied with the information furnished, he approached CIC and filed a complaint and argued that the concerned assessment reports are public documents under Section 4 (1) (b) of the Right to Information Act and it is supposed to be pro-actively disclosed by the CPIO of NMC.
Referring to the earlier order of CIC asking erstwhile MCI to disclose the assessment reports of the medical colleges, the complainant had further argued that NMC being the legal successor of MCI is liable to disclose the assessment reports as the CIC order to MCI is binding to NMC's CPIO.
While considering the complaint, last year the CIC advised the NMC to upload the medical college assessment reports for the current academic year on the NMC website.
CIC had last year ordered, "the Commission advises the respondent to upload medical college assessment reports for the current academic years on their website. Hence no further action lies."
Despite the order, NMC has not made the reports public yet. When Dr Meeran approached the NMC and cited a violation of CIC orders, it claimed that there was no violation because as per Section 25 of the “Establishment of Medical Institutions, Assessment & Rating Regulations, 2023", which was recently published in the Gazette of India on June 02, 2023, MARB is liable to upload the latest annual assessment results and ratings of the medical colleges or medical institutes "in such a manner as to facilitate public understanding and consumption."
NMC responded to another RTI application filed by the petitioner to provide an assessment report of Stanley Medical College (Chennai). NMC refused this application by stating that medical college assessment reports contained personal information and it could not be shared, mentioned Dr. Meeran.
Earlier, Dr. Meeran had also sent a representation in this regard through the Prime Minister Office Grievance portal. He had also filed a plea in this regard before the Madras High Court.
Arguments:
When the matter again came to be considered before CIC, the Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB) of NMC referred to NMC's meeting dated 01.05.2024, where it was decided that the Standard Assessment Form (SAF) report "need not be in the public domain."
The appellant stated that the relevant information had not been furnished to him to date. He also stated that had had sought the final assessment report prepared by NMC related to the medical colleges but it was also denied by the PIO on frivolous ground. He also highlighted that NMC was under an obligation to publish such medical assessment and such reports should be placed in the public domain in the larger public interest.
He further stated that after NMC superseded the erstwhile MCI, all the medical college assessment reports of the previous academic year had been removed from their official website. Therefore, he directed the PIO to furnish information as sought in the instant RTI applications.
On the other hand, NMC reiterated that the information sought was exempted from disclosure under Section 8(1)(j)(j). Referring to the NMC 14th meeting, it was submitted that in the meeting it was decided that the Standard Assessment Forms submitted by the colleges should not be placed in the public domain.
It was further submitted that the assessment report comprised of the Standard Assessment Form submitted by the concerned college along with declarations made by the faculty and staff which contains personal information and is accordingly exempted under Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act. Further, it was stated that the details of the medical colleges were being regularly updated on their official website.
CIC Order:
The Commission noted that the importance of the medical college assessment reports lay in the fact that those reports revealed the date of inspection, details of the infrastructure of the concerned medical college/institution, including the number of beds in each department and bed occupancy rate, number of in-patient, outpatient and also department-wise total number of faculty in the concerned teaching hospital and the college.
Therefore, reiterating its earlier order, it directed NMC to ensure that the information about the assessment reports of all the medical colleges should be regularly uploaded on their website after taking into consideration the exemptions listed under Section 8 (1) and Section 9 of the RTI Act, in compliance with the provisions of Section 4 of the RTI Act to boost transparency and in the larger public interest concerning the quality of medical education in the country.
