Bombay High Court Pulls Up Foreign Medical Graduate For Filing Complaint In Bar Council Against National Medical Council’s Lawyer

“This is an attempt to intimidate an advocate at our bar who is appearing for the respondent (NMC) and who is doing his job. He (NMC’s advocate) is pointing out an order to the bench led by Justice Dhanuka…Does he (petitioner Yati Patil) understand the implications of what he said about Justice Dhanuka? 'Justice Dhanuka was misled, Justice Dhanuka did not understand what was placed before him' … All this is implicit in his complaint,” the bench said.

The complaint alleged that the NMC’s lawyer had made a false statement before another bench of the high court while producing a court order before it.

The division bench of Justice G. S. Patel and Justice Neela Gokhale was hearing a batch of petitions alleging several irregularities in the screening tests conducted by National Board of Examinations for foreign medical graduates. 

Advocate Ganesh Gole for the NMC told the court that when the petitioner could not obtain an order in his favour, he filed a complaint before the Bar Council against him and his junior. The court took strong exception to this and stated that this is an attempt to intimidate an advocate who is doing his job.

“He (petitioner) wants to test the limits of what this court is capable of. Mr. Shetty (petitioner’s lawyer), there is nobody better than you to advise him what this bench can and is unafraid to do. Remember this about the Bombay High Court, we dislodged the Chief Minister, who is he?,” Justice G. S. Patel said.

The bench termed this an attempt to scam the system. “If he thinks he can get away with this, he is dialling the wrong number, he is approaching the wrong bench,” Justice Patel said.

The petitioner has also filed contempt proceedings alleging that respondents did not comply with the Apex Court directions in Sanjeev Gupta and Ors. v. Union of India and Ors. (2005).

During the hearing, the court was not convinced with the petitioner’s case. When the petitioner’s complaint against NMC’s lawyer came to light, the bench said that this act of the petitioner is actually a case of criminal contempt. 

The court noted that advocate Ashok Shetty for the petitioner was caught unawares by the complaint and directed him to seek instructions on whether the petitioner will pursue it. The court also directed the petitioner to be present on the next date i.e., February 2, 2023.

Case no. – WP/2078/2021 [Original]

Case Title – All India Medical Students Welfare Forum and Anr. v. Union of India and Ors.