INTRODUCTION

The Medical Council of India - a statutory body - was established in February 1934 under an act of parliament - the Indian Medical Council Act, 1933. This Act was repealed by Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 (102 of 1956).  Some amendments to this Act were made in 1958 (36 of 1958) and in 1964 (24 of 1964). Amendments were made through an ordinance promulgated by the President of India on 27^th August 1992.  Through this ordinance, new section i.e. Section 10A, 10B, & Section 10C were introduced in the I.M.C. Act, 1956 notified on 2^nd January 1993 mainly to restrict mushroom growth of medical colleges, increase of seats in any of the course and starting of new courses without the prior approval of the Government of India, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. This amendment was duly notified by the Government of India in the extraordinary Gazette of India part II section I on 3^rd April 1993 with effective date 1^st June 1992. An amendment was made and notified by the Central Govt. duly published in the Gazette of India on 28.6.2003 with regard to amend the Screening Test Regulations, 2002 putting that a candidate shall have to pass all the three papers in the same attempt. However there shall not be any restriction on the number of attempts to appear in the test. An amendment was made and notified by the Central Govt. duly published in Gazette of India on 1^st March, 2004 with regard to amend the Regulations on Graduate Medical Education, 1997 putting that “(6A) There shall be no admission of students in respect of any academic session beyond 30^th September under any circumstances.  The Universities shall not register any student admitted beyond the said date. (6B) The Medical Council of India may direct, that any students identified as having obtained admission after the last date of closure of admission be discharged from the course of study, or any medical qualification granted to such a student shall not be a recognised qualification for the purpose of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956.  The Institution which grants admission to any student after the last date  specified from the same shall also be liable to face such action as may be prescribed by MCI including surrender of seats equivalent to the extent of such admission made from its sanctioned intake capacity for the succeeding academic year”. Latest amendment was made and Notified by the Central Govt. duly published in the Gazette of India on 23^rd March, 2006 with regard to Postgraduate Medical Education (Amendment) Regulations, 2006.

          There are 180 recognised medical colleges, and 82 colleges have been permitted u/s 10A of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 during the year under review.  Approx 27000 graduates pass out every year from these colleges.  Such graduates after completing compulsory rotating internship are required to be registered with State Medical Council or the Medical Council of India to practice medicine in the country.

OBJECTIVES

In consonance of the provisions of the Act, Medical Council of India is entrusted with the following objectives :- 

A.        (I) Maintenance of uniform standards of Medical Education-both at (1) Undergraduate and  (2) Postgraduate levels for continuance of already recognised courses.  It also  envisages inspections/visitations of medical colleges for permission to start medical colleges for MBBS course, starting of new Postgraduate courses and increase of seats  (as per provisions of section 10A of the Act). 

(II)                Recommendation to the Central Government, Ministry of Health  & F.W, for recognition and de-recognition of  Medical qualifications of Medical Institutions (a) within, (b) outside the country  After amendment of section 13(4) which provides for screening test, scope of recognition of foreign medical qualifications when held by Indian nationals has basic more or less met a dead end. In the matter of mutual recognition of Medical qualifications as per provisions of section 12 (2) of the Act, matters can still be considered.  

B.        (i)          Maintenance of Indian  Medical Register.             

(ii)               Grant of Provisional & Permanent registration as applicable to persons holding recognised Medical qualifications included in the schedules to the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956.

(iii)             Issue of good standing certificates. 

Section 3(1) of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 provides for constitution and composition of the Council consisting of the following:- 

(a)               One member from each State other than a Union Territory to be nominated by the Central Government in consultation with the State Government concerned. 

(b)               One member from each University, to be elected from amongst the members of the medical  faculty of the University or in case the University has no Senate, by members of the Court. 

(c)               One member; from each State- in which a State Medical Register is maintained-to be elected  from amongst themselves by persons enrolled on such Register - who possess the medical qualifications included  in the First and Second Schedule or in Part-II of the third Schedule to the Act. 

(d)               Seven members to be elected from amongst themselves by persons who possess the   medical  qualification included in the Part I of the Third Schedule. 

(e)               Eight members to be nominated by the Central Government. 

The President and Vice-President  of the Council shall be elected by the members of the Council from amongst themselves.

COUNCIL – 2006-2007

   Following are the office bearers of the Council for the year under report:-

  Following are the officers of the Council for  the year from 01.4.2006 to 31.03.2007:- 

Name of Official	Designation
Lt. Col. (Dr.) A.R.N. Setalvad (Retd.)	Secretary
Dr. Prem Kumar	Additional  Secretary
Dr. Davinder Kumar	Deputy Secretary
Sh. A.K. Harit	Deputy Secretary
Sh. Jagtar Singh	Assistant Secretary
Sh. Ranvir Singh	Assistant Secretary
Sh. Anil Kumar Ahluwalia	Accounts Officer
Sh. Anupam Dhua	Computer Programmer
Mrs. Madhu Handa	Assistant Secretary

Out of the total number of 142 membership of the Council, names of 19 universities have been deleted vide Central Govt. Notifications dated 27.3.2000, 17.5.2000, 25.7.2000 & 19.7.2001.  Hence, total number of membership is 123, out of which 23 seats are lying vacant due to various reasons like expiry of term, non-election of a member, non-existence of medical faculty of certain Universities due to establishment of concerned State Health and Universities.  List of members during the year 2006-2007 is given at Annexure I.

1)  Executive Committee : 

Composition of the Executive Committee is – 4 members amongst University representatives, 3 members from amongst nominated members, 2 members from amongst representative of Registered Medical Graduate and one member of the Licentiate Group. The President and the Vice-President of the Council are ex-officio members of the Executive Committee.

The following is the list of members of the Executive Committee as on 31.3.2007:-

                       
(II)                The Postgraduate Medical Education Committee :  Composition of the Postgraduate Committee is – 6 members are nominated by the Central Govt. and three members are elected by the Council from amongst its members u/s 20 of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956.  Following are the members of the Postgraduate Committee nominated by the Central Govt.

List of Postgraduate Committee as on 31.3.2007              

Nominated by the Central Govt.

The main issues taken up by this committee are starting of & increase in intake capacity in various Postgraduate courses u/s 10A of the I.M.C. Act, 1956 and recognition of Postgraduate qualifications u/s 11(2) of the Act, considering matters of continuation of recognition of Postgraduate qualification of various subjects prescribing broad framework of syllabus and details of curriculum and fixing appropriate land of clinical material for various Postgraduate degree/diploma courses and making appropriate recommendations to the Central Government with due approval by the General Body of the Council.  

Frequency of Meeting of Executive Committee and of Postgraduate Committee on an average has now increased to once every month. 

In addition to the above mentioned two important and statutory Committees of the Council, there are certain Sub-committees to facilitate smooth functioning of the connected activities within the frame work of various Regulations and Policy decisions of the Council. Lists of members of Sub-Committees are enclosed. The details of such Sub-committees are as under:- 

a)            Migration Sub-Committee -  Though migration as a matter of principle are not encouraged by the Council, yet under the Regulations of the Council on Graduate Medical Education , 1997 there is a provision for migration of students at Undergraduate level from one recognised medical college to another recognised medical college with certain other conditions.  The Migration Sub-Committee of the Council is entrusted with the job of consideration of genuine and legitimate migrations of the Candidates; whose applications are received by the office and dealt with as per provisions of the  Council Regulations. The office received 29 applications and allowed migration of 7 students only.  

b)            Teacher’s Eligibility Qualification Sub-Committee - Council has prescribed minimum qualifications and teaching experience for recruitment of teachers in a medical college and further promotions in the teaching cadre.  The matters, which cannot be decided by the appointing authorities (i.e. Universities or colleges etc.), are referred to this Committee for consideration.   

c)             Finance Committee:-   This is another important Sub-committee of the Council which decides  upon the matters pertaining to finance of the Council in terms of preparation of budget, expenditure, implementation of Central Government orders with respect to service conditions etc. 

d)         Ethics Committee:  - The present day scenario has changed and as a result of the Consumer Protection Act made applicable to the practicing physicians, complaints against doctors have increased manifold.   

The Council received 732 matters of Ethical nature during the year under review.   Out of 732 complaints, 293 have been referred to the concerned State Councils/Authorities for necessary action, 58 of these are awaiting clarification/details from complainants and/or comments from the concerned Doctors etc. while 381 complaints stand disposed by this Council. ` 

e)            CONTINUING MEDICAL EDUCATION ADVISORY COMMITTEE. 

The CME Conferences and type of CME programmes to be held at various places are decided after scrutinising the applications from institutions desirous of holding such programmes It may be mentioned that a grant of Rs.50,000/- is given for C.M.E. programmes held with Indian faculty and Rs. One Lakh for faculty  including N.R.Is. This grant is used for local hospitality of the N.R.I. faculty and for publication of programme proceedings only.   

            In certain  matters where it becomes difficult to arrive at a decision, or where certain policy decisions are required to be  taken or certain changes in existing regulations are desirable, certain other Sub-committees are nominated/formed by the President/ Council/Executive Committee, as the case may be, to deliberate in detail on the issues and submit their report either to the  President or to the Executive Committee or the concerned body  of the Council for further action in the matter and/or a final decision. 

DETAILS  OF MEETINGS 

            Number of the various meetings held during the year under review is as follows, along-with dates when held giving an idea of the business transacted by the Council:- 

            A total No. of 82 Meetings of different Committees & Sub-Committees were held during the year under review as per details below:-