Just as convicted lawmakers cannot make it to the Parliament or legislative Assemblies as per the recent Supreme Court order, any person with a similar background has been banned from opening a new medical college in the country by the Medical Council of India (MCI).
A notification issued by the MCI on July 8, a couple of days before the SC judgement came, also prevents any convicted person from seeking enhancement of the medical seats in his/her medical college.
Further, as per the notification, a new medical college will have to wait for at least 10 years before it could seek enhancement of seats. Till now, even a one-year-old medical college despite inadequate infrastructure used to move application to the MCI seeking increase in the medical seats.
The move aims to scuttle any political interference of the Health Ministry at the behest of the politicians or political compulsions in the matters related to medical colleges seeking enhancement of seats despite not fulfilling infrastructure criteria.
A CAG report submitted to Parliament in April 2011 says it all. The Health Ministry “did not take any action” for de-recognition in the case of nine medical colleges whose withdrawal of recognition was recommended by the MCI due to “persistent irregularities” noticed by the Council in its inspections, said the top auditor.
Similarly, out of 71 cases approved by the Ministry, in four cases of Government colleges, the MCI had objected to permission. But the Ministry went ahead to award the same, it added.
“The notification aims to enhance the intake capacity in the existing medical colleges so as to augment the human resources in medicine for attaining optimum Doctor-population ratio in the nation, without compromising on the prescribed minimum standards of medical education,” said a senior official from the top medical education regulator.
Only such existing medical colleges shall be eligible to apply for enhancement of seats that enjoy minimum ten years of standing from the date of grant of initial letter of permission by the Government, as per the notification.
The legal order also makes it clear that those persons “who have established the medical colleges and are convicted by the court in a criminal investigation initiated by the CBI or police would not be able to apply for increase in the medical seats.”