Medical College Allegedly Operating Sans License: HC Lashes Out at NMC for Failing to Submit Status Report
Chennai: The Madras High Court bench recently lashed out at the apex medical body, the National Medical Commission (NMC) for failing to submit the status report regarding a medical college in Mangadu, run by Sri Muthukumaran Educational Trust, since June this year.
This comes as the court was considering a plea, which alleged that the medical college was functioning without any valid license, registration, or proper facilities. Since June-July this year, the High Court has been asking NMC to file a status report clarifying whether the trust had the required license to operate the medical college and also the stand of NMC regarding the matter.
However, noting that till the present date NMC hasn't been able to file a status report yet, the High Court bench comprising of Chief Justice Sanib Banerjee and Justice P D Audikesavalu lashed out at NMC and sought an explanation from the chairperson of the apex medical regulatory body as to why the court shouldn't take action for NMC' s "unacceptable and inappropriate conduct," adds DT Next.
"The Chairperson of the NMC should file an affidavit when the matter appears next as to why appropriate measures should not be taken against such Chairperson for the completely unacceptable and inappropriate conduct of the NMC in this matter despite several orders, including the immediate previous order of August 26, 2021," the bench was quoted saying as it posted the matter for further hearing on September 30 and asked NMC to submit a status report by the time.
As per the latest media report by DT Next, the plea before the High Court bench alleged that Sri Muthukumaran Educational Trust was running a medical college in Madgadu even though it lacked a license, registration, and even proper facilities. However, the trust had claimed that the petition was a copy-paste job from a previous petition that was dismissed by the court with costs of Rs 1 lakh.
Responding to the plea, the High Court bench since July this year has been asking NMC for filing its status report explaining whether the trust had valid license and also would clarify the stand of NMC regarding the matter.
During the last hearing, the counsel appearing for NMC had sought some more time for filing the status report and the court had granted the same. However, till date no status report has been filed by NMC and the commission sought for more time which allegedly irked the High Court bench.
At this outset, the bench noted,
"Despite the order dated August 26 and the substantial time afforded to NMC to file a status report, no shred of paper had been forthcoming from the Commission though counsel representing such commission has profusely apologized and it does not appear that the counsel has any control over the client."
"The chairperson of the NMC should file an affidavit when the matter appears next as to why appropriate measures should not be taken against the chairperson for the completely unacceptable and inappropriate conduct of the NMC in this matter despite several orders, including the immediate previous order of August 26," further observed the High Court bench as it posted the matter for further hearing to September 30.
However, the controversy surrounding the medical college in Mangadu is not new. Medical Dialogues had reported back in 2019 that the medical college had earlier approached the Madras High Court after its affiliation was withheld by Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University.
Back then, the High Court had approved the medical college to continue its MBBS course for the academic session 2019-2020 on a provisional basis after the chairperson of the Trust had given an undertaking assuring that the defects as pointed out by the inspection team would be rectified within three months.
