NMC draft amendment bars approval for new medical colleges, courses, seat hike without complete infrastructure
National Medical Commission
New Delhi: Permission for new medical colleges, new medical courses, or an increase in seats in the existing medical courses may no longer be given if the hospitals or academic buildings are still under construction, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has proposed in the draft amendments to the Establishment of New Medical Institutions, Assessment and Rating Regulations, 2023.
Releasing the "Establishment of New Medical Institutions Assessment & Rating (Amendment) Regulations, 2026" on 08.07.2026, the Apex Medical Commission proposed adding a new clause to the existing regulations, specifying that at the time of application for new medical colleges, new medical courses, or an increase in seats in the existing courses, the infrastructure and other statutory requirements should be complete.
NMC has proposed that permission will not be granted based on a temporary arrangement for the hospital and college building. In this regard, the Commission mentioned in the draft,
"Clause 9 (k) shall be inserted as:" Infrastructure and other statutory requirements as per the regulations shall be complete at the time of application. Temporary arrangement for the Hospital and college building shall not be permitted. A work-in-progress status of the applicant institute shall not be considered for further processing of the application."
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that, releasing the proposed amendment "Establishment Of New Medical Institutions, Starting Of New Medical Courses, Increase Of Seats For Existing Courses & Assessment & Rating (Amendment) Regulations, 2026", the National Medical Commission (NMC) has proposed changes in Clauses 6, 9, 15, and 31 of the 2023 regulations.
These clauses specified the bodies/entities eligible to apply to establish a new medical college or start a new medical course; the documents the applicant needs to submit to the Commission; the evaluation results and issuance of the letter of approval; and the penalties imposed on applicants, etc.
In the Draft, NMC has also proposed to reject incomplete applications submitted without the mandated documents. The Commission proposed to amend the first proviso after Explanation 3, under clause 9 of the 2023 regulations, as follows:
"Provided any incomplete applications received, meaning applications without the mandated documents specified in the present Regulation or any such other documents as notified from time to time by the MARB or at time of notification of inviting the application by MARB, shall not constitute a valid/eligible scheme as per Section 28(2) of the National Medical Commission Act, 2019, and the same shall be rejected by the MARB without any opportunity as mandated under Section 28(3) of the NMC Act and clause 13 of this regulation."
According to the proposed amendment, the applicants will need to submit a Consent of Affiliation (CoA) letter obtained from a recognised university, issued in the name of the applicant/ the Medical College/ the entity in writing. Another document that may be required while submitting an application is a solvency certificate based on the last completed financial year, issued by a Chartered Accountant within ninety days before the last date of invitation of the application.
Further, NMC has proposed that, when submitting applications for the establishment of new medical colleges or courses, the applicant shall submit an undertaking to earmark a corpus fund for the functioning of the new medical institute. The amount of such Corpus Fund shall be determined by the Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB) of the Commission and shall be communicated through notice. Further, the amount of such Corpus Fund may be revised from time to time, and whenever directed by the MARB, the college will have to submit documentary proof for the said fund.
Releasing the new draft regulations on July 8, 2026, NMC has invited comments, objections, and suggestions from stakeholders within 30 days from the date of the Gazette notification.
