HC seeks response from State on pending elections for Maharashtra Medical Council
Mumbai: While considering a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the appointment of an administrator of the Maharashtra Medical Council, the Bombay High Court on Tuesday questioned the State Government to inform the court about the time when the elections for constituting the government body of the Council will be held.
Seeking an answer from the State Government in this regard, the HC division bench of Acting Chief Justice Sanjay V Gangapurwala and Justice Sandeep V Marne has listed the matter for further hearing on March 15.
Filing the PIL, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has prayed to the court for setting aside the notification dated October 8, 2022 issued by the State Medical Education and Drugs Department.
Issuing the concerned notice, the Department had allegedly exercised the powers conferred by Section 31 of the MMC Act, 1965 for appointing Dr Pallavi Saple, who is the Dean of Grant Government Medical College and Sir J J Group of Hospital, Mumbai, as the administrator of the State Medical Council for one year.
As per the latest media report by Indian Express, Challenging the concerned notification, the counsel for IMA, Advocate Aniket Mokashi informed the bench that on October 13, 2022, the association had written to the State Government and requested to conduct MMC elections. However, the State took no action in this regard and thereafter the association approached the High Court division bench and filed the Public Interest Litigation (PIL).
The plea sought direction to the State for conducting the MMC elections among the registered medical practitioners and nominate five members as per Section 3(3)(a) of the 1965 law.
Further, the association has also prayed to the Court to give charge to the outgoing members of the MMC for performing their duties during the interim period until the new council gets constituted.
Seeking to know from the State about the time when the elections for the State Medical Council will be conducted the bench listed the matter for further hearing on March 15.
