National Medical Commission, India’s regulator of medical education, comes into existence

Team Udayavani, Sep 25, 2020, 11:40 AM IST

New Delhi: The National Medical Commission (NMC), in place of the Medical Council of India (MCI), as the country’s apex regulator of medical education and profession has come into existence from Friday.

With the NMC coming into being, the Board of Governors (BoG) which superseded the MCI on September 26, 2018, to perform its functions, has been dissolved and the nearly 64-year-old Indian Medical Council Act abolished.

Former head of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences ENT department here, Dr Suresh Chandra Sharma has been appointed as chairman for a period of three years with effect from Friday, while Rakesh Kumar Vats, who was Secretary General in the Board of Governors of the MCI, is the secretary of the commission.

The NMC Act, which seeks to usher in mega reforms in the medical education sector, received the assent of the president on August 8, 2019 and was published the same day.

The Act provided for setting up of an NMC in place of the scam-tainted Medical Council of India.

The four autonomous boards under the NMC Act — the Under-Graduate Medical Education Board (UGMEB), Post-Graduate Medical Education Board (PGMEB), Medical Assessment and Rating Board and the Ethics and Medical Registration Board — have also been constituted and comes into existence from Friday, according to the notifications issued by Nipun Vinayak, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Health on Thursday.

“In pursuance of the provisions of sub-section (1) of the section 60 of the National Medical Commission Act, 2019, the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 is hereby repealed with effect from the 25th day of September, 2020.

“The Board of Governors appointed under section 3A of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 in supersession of the Medical Council of India constituted under sub-section (1) of section 3 of the said Act shall stand dissolved,” one of the notifications read.

The NMC comprises a chairman, 10 ex-officio members and 22 part-time members.

The ex-officio members include presidents of the four autonomous boards.

“In pursuance of the provisions…of the National Medical Commission Act, 2019 , the central government hereby constitutes the National Medical Commission,” another notification read.

“Now, therefore, in exercise of the powers…the central government hereby notifies that all the remaining provisions of the National Medical Commission Act, 2019, shall come into force with effect from the 25th day of September, 2020,” another one read.

Dr Sharma, was on January 2, appointed the chairman of the NMC after the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved his appointment for a period of three years.

“Under sub-section (2) of section 4, the Chairperson of the National Medical Commission (Dr Suresh Chandra Sharma) is appointed for a period of three years with effect from September 25,” according to a notification said.

Vats, the Secretary General in the Board of Governors of the MCI,was appointed as the secretary of the commission for a similar term on January 2.