Union Health Ministry's attempt to give sweeping powers to the Government to remove the president, vice-president or a member of the Medical Council of India (MCI) under certain specified circumstances has been shot down by a Parliamentary panel on the ground that it would compromise the autonomy of the statutory body.
It noted that the Government's move to control the elected body proposed through amendments to the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 would not only be dangerous and "open to grave misuse leading to avoidable litigations" but also be a deterrent to independent and unbiased decisions by the MCI's functionaries.
Instead, power of removal should be with the Council itself, said the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health in its report tabled in the Rajya Sabha recently.
The proposed amendment seeking removal of the MCI functionaries including its President if found indulging in corrupt practices or having abused his position or being proved guilty of misbehaviour in the MCI Bill 2013 came following suspension of the Council's ex-head Ketan Desai three years back on corruption charges.
However, the Committee felt that such ideas were ambiguous, making it impossible for them-- who are professionals-- to discharge their duties without any interference and pressure from the Central Government.
The amendment also seeking restricting the tenure of the Council's President and Vice President to two terms was introduced in the Parliament last session by the Health Ministry.
However, its proposal to cut down the provision of fixing the term of the statutory body from current five years to four has been rejected by the Committee headed by senior RS member Brajesh Pathak.
The proposal to define the word "University" as "any University in India established by law and having a medical faculty but does not include deemed University," thus debarring them from participating in elected procedure of the MCI too has not gone down well with the panel.
It said that the since deemed universities were recognized by the MCI as per its norms and guidelines, the Ministry's contention that the number of members of the Council would be unwieldy if each deemed University was allowed to send one representative was unconvincing.
On the Ministry's proposal to allow medical practice by foreign nationals who are registered medical practitioners in their countries, the panel called for abundant safeguards in the form of screening test to protect the interests of the people in the country.