In a historic PIL filed in the Supreme Court by PBT more than two decades ago (SC W.P. Civil No. 317/2000), Medical Council of India (MCI) replaced by National Medical Council (NMC) in 2019, were given appellate and supervisory authority over the State Medical Councils (SMCs) by implementation of two new provisions in 2004, Section 8.7 and 8.8, under which anyone aggrieved by decision from the SMC may challenge the said order. Over the past two decades, PBT has been helping countless victims of medical negligence to challenge biased and erroneous order passed by the state medical council in favor of the accused doctor under Section 8.7/8.8 many of whom were successful to overturn SMC’s order as MCI held doctors guilty for medical negligence to cancel license of the errant medicos delivering equitable justice for the victims.
Members of the new NMC “Ethics and Medical Registration Board” (EMRB) have now started to refuse to accept appeals filed by victims of “medical negligence” challenging orders passed by the SMCs citing that Section 30 of the NMC Act, 2019 provides right to aggrieved doctors to appeal if they were found guilty by the SMC but no such right exists for the aggrieved complainants/victims of medical negligence. Interestingly, NMC has remained completely silent about rights of the victims under Section 8.7/8.8 to challenge SMC’s decisions which is the law since 2004. PBT has sent an urgent notice to the NMC seeking answers to the specific questions in regard to the rights of the victims of medical negligence and/or ethical violation by delinquent physicians. If NMC remains silent or does not provide reasonable answers, PBT is ready to move another PIL against this palpable atrocity by the top medical regulatory authority (NMC) in India (see copy of the Notice sent by PBT to the NMC below).
Letter:Representation to NMC (April 2022)
