Mumbai: Bombay high court on Thursday directed the state govt to say why it did not take steps to constitute Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) after the 5-year term of its members ended in Aug 2022 .
“This is another example of how the govt functions,” said Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Amit Borkar.
The PIL was filed by Satara-based Dr Pravin Rathod who challenged a Feb 24 notification appointing a private doctor and former MMC vice-president, Dr Vinky Rughwani, as administrator till a new council is n place.
Rathod’s petition said Indian Medical Association has been writing to State Medical Eeducation & Drugs Department since Sept 2022 to constitute the council. Instead, in Oct 2022 the govt appointed an administrator for a year. In 2023, another administrator was appointed for a year. His petition earlier said two administrators were doctors in government employment and answerable to the government, but “strangely for no reason” Dr Rughwani, a private doctor “who owes no responsibility to the state govt for his acts of omissions and commissions” was appointed administrator.
Dr Rathod’s advocates, Tejas Deshmukh and Akshay Shinde, argued MMC is a regulatory body for medical practitioners. It discharges a quasi-judicial function as authority in plaints against doctors. “Appointment of a private person would endanger independence of the body,’’ said Deshmukh.
The judges asked if MMC is a permanent body as section 4 of MMC Act provides for term of members, not of MMC. “Perhaps the govt treated it as if the Council ceases to exist,” the CJ said. Posting the hearing on Aug 14, the judges directed the govt to say what power it exercised to issue the notification.

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