The government may be empowered to remove the president or other office-bearers of Medical Council of India (MCI) if found indulging in corrupt practices. The Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Bill, 2013, which is expected to be put before the Cabinet on Thursday seeks to bring about such changes requiring the government to act in case of serious charges against MCI office-bearers.
The ministry of health and family welfare is also proposing 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. Earlier, the President could have a five-year tenure and there was no limit on the total number of terms.
Under the present law the government had no control over the elected body of the MCI. The health ministry had constituted Board of Governors (BoG) after its former President was allegedly caught taking bribe in 2010. Since then the health ministry has been seeking extension of the tenure of BoG governing MCI. The tenure of the current Board of Governors, which is running its second term, will end on May 13. If the amendments are passed by the Parliament the elected body would again be installed. According to the proposed amendments the renewal of enrolment of doctors will be made mandatory every 10 years. Once passed all the doctors enrolled with Indian Medical Register or the State Medical Register for 10 years will have to apply for renewal within a year.