Prashant Bhushan writes to Lodha Committee for systematic changes in the structure and functioning of Medical Council

Activist Lawyer Prashant Bhushan has submitted a representation before the Supreme Court appointed Oversight Committee headed by former Chief Justice of India Justice RM Lodha seeking systematic changes in the structure and functioning of the MCI.Bhushan mentions in the representation that he is going to file a Writ in the Supreme Court of India for constitution of an expert committee comprising of individuals of unimpeachable integrity from both the field of Medicine and Law, to make recommendations to ensure that the MCI can be made to function transparently, non-arbitrarily and fairly, to prevent the scope for corruption and conflicts of interest, and to rationalise unnecessary regulations, so that the objects of the act and the right to health of the citizen is achieved.Bhushan alleges that MCI has not performed it’s duties as it should have and thus the standard of health of the citizen, the citizens access to doctors and medical facilities have not improved as it ought to have while the cost of healthcare has risen greatly. He has summarized Eight important reasons for MCI’s failure to properly perform its functions and how this failure has adversely affected the citizen’s right to health.The reasons include the lack of transparency in the functioning of the MCI, and arbitrary decision making process, especially in regard of permission to open new medical colleges and permission to increase admission capacity, which has led to wide scale corruption in the MCI, including many highly publicised cases. This has adversely affected the standard of medical education and the quality of healthcare professionals that the medical education system is producing, directly and adversely affecting the quality of healthcare available to the citizens and their right to health.The representation also suggests the following remedial measures It is of Paramount importance that the MCI functions with total transparency and is guided by the Act, Rules and Regulations in a manner that prevent it from taking arbitrary decisions. The importance of institutional integrity and the need to prevent conflicts of interest in institutions performing important public functions was affirmed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in Board of Control for Cricket in India vs Cricket Association of Bihar &Ors, Civil Appeal No. 4235 of 2014, in a Judgment dated 22.01.2015. The Hon’ble Supreme Court observed in Para 96 : “96. BCCI is a very important institution that discharges important public functions. Demands of institutional integrity are, therefore, heavy and need to be met suitably in larger public interest. Individuals are birds of passage while institutions are forever. The expectations of the millions of cricket lovers in particular and public at large in general, have lowered considerably the threshold of tolerance for any mischief, wrong doing or corrupt practices which ought to be weeded out of the system. Conflict of interest is one area which appears to have led to the current confusion and serious misgivings in the public mind as to the manner in which BCCI is managing its affairs.”In para 109, this Hon’ble Court opined:“109. The proposed Committee can also, in our opinion, be requested to examine and make suitable recommendations on the following aspects:(i) Amendments considered necessary to the memorandum of association of the BCCI and the prevalent rules and regulations for streamlining the conduct of elections to different posts/officers in the BCCI including conditions of eligibility and disqualifications, if any, for candidates wanting to contest the election for such posts including the office of the president of the BCCI.(ii) Amendments to the memorandum of association, and rules and regulation considered necessary to provide a mechanism for resolving conflict of interest should such a conflict arise despite Rule 6.2.4 prohibiting creation or holding of any commercial interest by the administrators, with particular reference to persons, who by virtue of their proficiency in the game of Cricket, were to necessarily play some role as Coaches, Managers, Commentators etc.(iii) Amendment, if any, to the Memorandum of Association and the Rules and Regulations of BCCI to carry out the recommendations of the Probe Committee headed by Justice Mudgal, subject to such recommendations being found acceptable by the newly appointed Committee.Any other recommendation with or without suitable amendment of the relevant Rules and Regulations, which the Committee may consider necessary to make with a view to preventing sporting frauds, conflict of interests, streamlining the working of BCCI to make it more responsive to the expectations of the public at large and to bring transparency in practices and procedures followed by BCCI.” In so far as surprise inspection is concerned;- The first and foremost thing is that the inspections should be video recorded, each and every detail of the health professionals and the equipment duly recorded, and...

Prashant Bhushan writes to Lodha Committee for systematic changes in the structure and functioning of Medical Council

M.A Rashid

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