Supreme Court panel to monitor Medical Council of India.

Parliamentary Standing Committee report of March 2016 stated that medical education and profession in the country is at its “lowest ebb” and is suffering from “total system failure” due to corruption and decay. The Supreme Court has used his powers under constitution to set up a three-member committee, headed by former Chief Justice of India R.M. Lodha, to look after the functioning of the Medical Council of India (MCI) for at least a year. A Constitution Bench, led by Justice Anil R. Dave said that the apex court was constrained to exercise its extraordinary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution as the government had not acted on the report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare.
The panel report cites that, “Products coming out of medical colleges are ill-prepared to serve in poor resource settings like Primary Health Centres, graduates lacked competence in performing basic health care tasks and unethical practices continued to grow and also the MCI was not able to spearhead any serious reforms in medical education.” Hence the Supreme Court decided to look after MCI.
Submitted by: SHUBHANGI GUPTA.