Delhi HC seeks Centre's response on plea against NMC allowing Medical MSc, PhD faculty in MBBS
Delhi High Court
New Delhi: Considering the plea which challenged the NMC regulations that permitted medical MSc/PhD holders as faculty in core MBBS subjects, the Delhi High Court has issued notice to the centre seeking its response.
According to PTI report, the bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela issued notice to the Centre on the plea, which claimed the regulations were diluting the standards of medical education. Therefore, the High Court bench on Thursday sought the Centre's response on the plea against a NMC notification increasing the limit of non-medical faculty for MBBS students for Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, Microbiology and Pharmacology.
The petition sought the judicial intervention to strike down certain provisions of the Teachers Eligibility Qualifications in Medical Institutions Regulations, 2025, and an amendment notification of July 2, issued by the National Medical Commission (NMC).
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"The impugned regulations allow individuals without an MBBS degree and clinical exposure to be appointed as faculty for undergraduate medical education, thereby diluting the standards of medical education and violating the statutory mandates of the National Medical Commission Act, 2019, as well as the Competency Based Medical Education (CBME) curriculum adopted by the NMC," the petition claimed, adds PTI
It claimed, earlier the appointment of non-medical teachers was restricted to a maximum of 15 per cent of the total faculty strength in Clinical Phase I departments (Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, Microbiology and Pharmacology) and only in case of non-availability of medical faculty to maintain the quality.
The amendment notification of July 2, however, increased the limit to 30 per cent, giving legitimacy to a parallel, non-clinical cadre of teachers without clinical background or patient care training, in contrary to the legitimate expectation of complete phase out of non-medical faculty, it claimed.
The court posted the matter for September.
In the plea, the association, the United Doctors Front (UDF), argued that allowing non-medical faculty is a dilution of medical education and a violation of constitutional/statutory provisions.
The petition has been listed for a hearing before the High Court bench comprising the Chief Justice of the Delhi HC on 21.08.2025, the association mentioned in a release.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that, releasing the final Medical Institutions (Qualifications of Faculty) Regulations, 2025, the National Medical Commission (NMC) Medical Institutions (Qualifications of Faculty) Regulations have allowed medical MSc, PhD degree holders to be appointed as faculty in Anatomy, Biochemistry, Physiology, Pharmacology, and Microbiology departments.
This follows a 2020 change that reduced non-medical faculty appointments in these departments to 15%, with some departments like Microbiology and Pharmacology restricted to 0%. The 2025 regulations restore non-medical faculty appointments to 30% in these subjects.
Medical MSc Degree holders were allowed to teach in Anatomy, Biochemistry, Physiology, Microbiology and Pharmacology departments of medical colleges until 2020. Back then, the intake of Medical MSc and PhD teachers was allowed up to 30% of capacity per subject (50% in biochemistry).
However, in October 2020, NMC reduced the permissible percentage of Medical MSc/PhD faculty in subjects like Anatomy, Biochemistry, and Physiology from 30% to 15%, while in Microbiology and Pharmacology, NMC decreased it to zero percent.
Releasing the "Guidelines for Undergraduate Courses under Establishment of New Medical Institutions,l Starting of New Medical Courses, Increase of Seats for Existing Courses & Assessment and Rating Regulations, 2023", NMC had clarified that only 15% of the total number of posts in the Anatomy, Physiology, and Biochemistry departments could be filled by non-medical teachers.
On July 2, 2025, NMC released an amendment to the UG-MSR 2023 and clarified that Medical MSc and PhD holders would now be allowed in Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Pharmacology departments to the extent of 30% of the total number of posts in the department, subject to the non-availability of medical teachers.
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