Medical
Council of India & Anr Vs. The State of Rajasthan & Anr [1996] INSC 64 (15 January 1996)
Ramaswamy,
K.Ramaswamy, K.G.B. Pattanaik (J)
CITATION:
1996 AIR 2073 JT 1996 (1) 634 1996 SCALE (1)634
ACT:
HEAD NOTE:
O R D
E R
Leave
granted.
We
have heard learned counsel for the appellant - Medical Council of India as well
as learned counsel for the first respondent. The second respondent has been
avoiding service of notice and, therefore, we had passed an order on January 8, 1996 that the notice must be deemed to
have been served on him. The only question is: whether the second respondent is
entitled to practise as registered medical practitioner? Admittedly, the second
respondent has done his M.Sc. (Medical Bio-Chemistry). He joined as
Demonstrator and thereafter became Professor in the Department of Bio-
Chemistry. He, on 31.7.73, sought to have his name registered with the State
Medical Register. When he was not allowed to practise Medicine on the basis of
the above qualifications, he filed a writ petition in the High Court. The
learned single Judge in Civil W.P.No.1169/81 by an order dated February 3, 1992 allowed the writ petition and
directed the appellant to enroll him as Medical Practitioner on the State
Medical Register. An appeal filed against the said order in Special appeal
No.179/1995 was dismissed vide order dated February 15, 1995 by the Division Bench of the High
Court. Thus, this appeal by special leave.
Section
2 (f) of the Indian Medical Counci1 Act, 1956 (for short, 'the Act') defines
"Medicine" means modern scientific medicine in all its branches and
includes surgery and obstetrics, but does not include veterinary medicine and
surgery. Section 2(h) defines "Recognised Medical Qualification" to
mean any of the medical qualifications included in the Schedule and Section
2(d) defines "Indian Medical Register" to mean medical register
maintained by the Council. Though M.Sc. (Bio-Chemistry) is included in the
Schedule, but unless the second respondent has qualified himself in Medicine,
he is not eligible to be registered as Medical practitioner. Section l5(1) of
the Act says that subject to the other provisions contained in this Act the
medical qualifications included in the Schedule shall be sufficient
qualification for enrolment on any State Medical Register. Section 26
postulates thus:
"26
Registration of additional qualification.
(1) If
any person whose name is entered in the Indian Medical Register obtains any
title diploma or other qualification for proficiency in sanitary science,
public health or medicine which is a recognised medical qualification he shall
on application made in this behalf in the prescribed manner be entitled to have
an entry stating such other title, diploma or other qualification made against
his name in the Indian Medical Register either in substitut666ion for or in
addition to any entry previously made.
(2)
The entries in respect of any such person in a State Medical Register shall be
altered in accordance with the alterations ntade in the Indian Medical
Register." It would thus be clear that the basic qualification of M.B.B.S.
as primary qualification is a pre-condition for a candidate for being
registered in the State Medical Register maintained by the State Board. The
second respondent does not have the basic qualification his M.Sc. (BioChemistry)
cannot be considered to be a basic qualification for practising as a Medical
Practitioner. The High Court has thus committed obvious error in allowing the
writ petition and directing the appellant to register him as a Medical
Practitioner.
The
appeal is accordingly allowed. No costs.
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