High court sets aside mandate to cut tenure of medical council

After hearing the arguments, the court, in its order dated June 12, had stayed the proceedings for the formation of the new council. Dr Khanna told TOI that he is also the chairman of the ethics committee at UMC and it was a matter of his reputation that compelled him to protest against the illegal government order.
  • Updated On Aug 5, 2023 at 02:06 PM IST
Read by: 100 Industry Professionals
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Dehradun: A single bench of Justice Ravindra Maithani of the Uttarakhand high court has quashed a government order reducing the Uttarakhand Medical Council (UMC) tenure from five to three years. The board was dissolved after the state government's order on March 12. Dr Ajay Khanna, state secretary of Indian Medical Association, Uttarakhand, had challenged the order in court, seeking directions for the government.

Dr Khanna told the court that he was elected as a UMC member on February 14, 2019, which was notified by the government in January 2020. In view of section 4 of the UMC Act, 2002, the term of an elected member is for five years. But before that the council had been dissolved and applications were invited to constitute a new council.

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Dr Khanna's counsel said that the term cannot be curtailed which is bad in the eyes of law. “Section 29 of the Act gives power to the government to dissolve the council, but there must be reasons for it. The question is whether those circumstances existed,'' he argued.

After hearing the arguments, the court, in its order dated June 12, had stayed the proceedings for the formation of the new council.

Dr Khanna told TOI that he is also the chairman of the ethics committee at UMC and it was a matter of his reputation that compelled him to protest against the illegal government order.

“Although other UMC members declined to challenge the order, I made it clear that I would go for my honour. I had also told the officials placed high in the government to do what is in the Act, otherwise if I go to court, they will be embarrassed,” he said, adding that now after the court quashed the government order, it will be a lesson to those who wanted to put unnecessary pressure on the UMC.
  • Published On Aug 5, 2023 at 02:02 PM IST
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