With the government failing to get through Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Bill in this session of the Parliament-that proposed to reconstitute the elected body of the Medical Council of India (MCI), the government is now left with an option to bring in an ordinance to govern the regulatory body.
It is learnt that the government is mooting with the idea to bring in an ordinance of the same bill soon. The proposed bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha in March 2013 with an intention to initiate election process and restore the elected body of the MCI. However, the matter could not be taken up in the Parliament, it is expected that the government will bring an ordinance by Monday.
Sources said that government will continue with the arrangement of Board of Governors (BoG) for manning the regulatory body as section 3 A (a) proposes “present arragement of BoG to consitute till the body is reconstituted.” The government may however make some changes in the present board headed by Dr K.K. Talwar.
The government had earlier superseded the MCI by issuing an ordinace in May 2010 after the then MCI president was caught by the CBI for allegedly taking bribe. Since then the health ministry has been seeking extension of the tenure of BoG governing MCI. The tenure of the current BoGs, which is running its second term, will end on May 13.
The Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Bill, 2013, sought to bring about such changes requiring the government to act in case of serious charges against MCI office-bearers. The proposed bill proposes to fix the tenure of the president of the elected-body of MCI to a maximum period of four years and restricting it to two continuous terms only.