Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has dismissed a petition by the College of Physicians and Surgeons (CPS) challenging the Maharashtra Medical Council’s (MMC) decision to derecognize several of its postgraduate diploma courses. The court also refused CPS’s request to admit students for the 2024-25 academic year.
A bench of Justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande also allowed a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Dr. Suhas Pingle, a Mumbai-based doctor, who contested CPS’s authority to conduct 10 additional postgraduate courses. Dr. Pingle’s counsel, V.M. Thorat, argued that CPS, initially approved for 10 courses in five hospitals, had expanded to admitting 1,200 students across 178 hospitals without proper regulatory compliance.
The court emphasised that under the National Medical Commission (NMC) Act, 2019, all medical institutions must seek prior approval to offer recognized courses. “Despite not being included in the NMC Act schedule, CPS remained insistent on running its courses by throwing all the norms and regulations prescribed by the supervisory bodies into the air,” the court observed.
The HC noted that CPS had lost its legal authority to confer degrees since the Indian Medical Degrees Act, 1916, was repealed in 2016. “The saving clause of the repealed Act only saves degrees already conferred, but no longer grants CPS the power to confer new degrees or diplomas. As of today, CPS has lost its ground either to confer qualifications or to have them recognized under the NMC Act,” the court stated.
Criticising CPS for failing to meet regulatory requirements, the HC remarked, “There is no reason why CPS should be conferred with the special privilege of not abiding by statutory mandates. It never wanted to fit into it.” The court urged CPS to “mend its ways” and function under the existing statutory regime.
The judgment also backed the government’s decision to remove certain CPS qualifications from the MMC schedule. It upheld the July 2023 order by the Maharashtra Medical Education Secretary deleting CPS qualifications under the MMC Act, 1965. The court also found no fault with the state’s October 2022 decision to appoint an administrator for the MMC.
The court noted that State Advocate General Birendra has “demonstrated that at its whims and fancies, CPS continue to affiliate colleges which were completely lacking the infrastructure necessary for conferring a degree/diploma, which include theory and practical”.
Addressing concerns over student careers, the court remarked, “We do not intend to put the career of thousands of students in peril, nor shall we permit the health of this country to be in the hands of doctors who have attained specialisation only on paper.”
While rejecting CPS’s petition, the court noted that if the institution aligns itself with regulatory norms and obtains approval under the NMC Act, it may be able to restart its courses in the prescribed manner.
The challenge to the validity of Section 28 of the MMC Act, 1965, which allows the council to recognize certain courses outside the NMC framework, was left open for determination in separate proceedings.
