HC upholds derecognition of CPS courses, restrains new admissions without NMC nod

CPS may start the courses again if it complies with regulatory norms pertaining to standards of medical education and is permitted to do so by competent bodies under the NMC Act

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Monday upheld the derecognition of courses offered by the College of Physicians and Surgeons (CPS) and restrained the institute from affiliating any hospital/ clinic and admitting students to any diploma or degree courses without prior permission from the National Medical Commission (NMC).

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The division bench of justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande said the order derecognising CPS courses, issued by the secretary, medical education and drugs department, on July 13, 2024, was based on section 10A of the Indian Medical Council Act and section 28 of the NMC Act, 2019 and therefore did not warrant any interference.

CPS may start the courses again if it complies with regulatory norms pertaining to standards of medical education and is permitted to do so by competent bodies under the NMC Act.

The order came on a bunch of petitions, including a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Dr Suhas Pingle, a former member of the Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC), and petitions filed by CPS challenging the July 13,2024 order, which halted counselling for 10 postgraduate courses offered by the institute.

Dr Pingle had challenged three notifications issued by the state government in 2017 and 2018 allowing CPS to continue offering 19 medical courses despite it recognising small, ill-equipped clinics and hospitals as training and teaching hospitals for conferment of its medical degrees.

In the PIL filed through advocate VM Thorat, the former president of the Maharashtra chapter of Indian Medical Association said the clinics/ hospitals affiliated with CPS lacked essential infrastructure, equipment, teaching and non-teaching staff.

“No transparency was maintained while admitting students to various post-graduate courses and in conducting examination and evaluation of answer sheets,” said his petition. Many students were given passing certificates despite failing examinations, the petition noted.

Dr Pingle noted that though the Medical Council of India, the predecessor of NMC, had recommended derecognition of CPS courses in 2000, the state government had included 11 courses derecognised by the Medical Council of India in the Schedule of Maharashtra Medical Council, without visiting any of the affiliated clinics/ hospitals.

Advocate VM Thorat had highlighted that under the existing legal regime, even the state government cannot start any new under-graduate and/or post-graduate medical course without approval of the central government and/ or NMC; whereas CPS, a registered society, had been conferred “superior rights” to grant permissions to private hospitals and clinics for starting medical courses.

Replying to the petitions, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had on July 19 informed the high court that CPS had lost its authority to conduct medical courses in May 2016, when the Indian Medical Degrees Act, 1916 which empowered it to confer degrees, was repealed. The same was communicated to the state government via a letter.