For MCI surgery, House has to give its consent

The bill, which has already been vetted by the Law Ministry, has been submitted to the Cabinet for approval.

The bill proposes that the existing council be dissolved and fresh elections ordered once the amendment is passed. An adhoc committee should be set up, it states, which will reconstitute the council and hold elections within five months for a new president and vice-president.

In addition to president and vice-president, MCI will also include ex-officio members as members of the executive committee, states the bill. These members would include director, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), president, National Board of Examination, director-general, Health Services and director-general, Armed Forces Medical Services.

Granting more powers to the government, the bill states that the council shall be guided by the Centre on the lines of the Act that governs the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) and AIIMS.

With an assurance that the MCI’s autonomy would not be compromised, the bill says the Centre will decide ‘‘on questions of policy relating to national purposes and that of any dispute with regard to whether a question is or is not a question of policy.’’

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had referred the bill to a Group of Ministers, which held a meeting on February 2. The recommendations of the GoM have been included in the final draft.

The functioning and composition of the MCI had come under scrutiny after the Delhi High Court disqualified and removed its president Dr Ketan Desai on corruption charges in November 2001.

The Supreme Court, which is currently hearing the case, had appointed an adhoc committee, constituting four eminent doctors, to supervise the functioning of the MCI.

The council also faces allegations of approving colleges with poor standards and infrastructure. Some of them were discussed by a Parliamentary Committee on Estimates on January 12. The members also questioned Health Secretary P K Hota and MCI’s acting president P C Kesavankutty Nayar in this connection.

The MCI was set up with a Parliamentary Act in 1956 to maintain high standards in medical education. The Act was amended many times—including in 1964, 1993 and 2001.

The procedure for the present amendment was started during the tenure of Sushma Swaraj as health minister during the NDA rule.