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The Maharashtra government has prepared the electoral roll of registered medical practitioners based on the Bombay High Court (HC) order. This comes as a welcome change following state government’s indifferent and delayed response on notifying MMC elections based on a PIL filed by Indian Medical Association (IMA) and Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC).
Bombay HC had called the respondent in the case- the state medical education department --on September 7, 2016 for hearing and to suitably reply on the delay of notifying MMC elections following state government’s abrupt decision to dissolve the MMC.
As per the HC order issued by coram of Judges B P Colabawalla and S C Dharmadhikari, the state government appointed returning officer would not be allowed to prepare the electoral roll. Registrar of the council will prepare the roll and if he is not in place then anybody who is currently in-charge of the affairs and day to day matters will undertake the exercise in terms of Rule 5 and as per our direction.
MMC, the quasi-judicial autonomous body, has been looking into cases of medical negligence for the past several years excluding the term between 1998 and 2010 when it remained defunct following an HC order. MMC had remained defunct from 1998 to 2010 following Bombay HC order that suspended it due to irregularities in the election of members and maintenance of register which led to the backlog of over 600 cases.
According to officials, the state government deliberately delayed in giving directive to hold MMC elections despite being given three reminders before the expiry of the 5-year Council's tenure on May 21, 2016.
MMC and IMA had petitioned a month ago to the HC about putting in place a full time administrator and also notification of MMC elections by the state government in the same petition when it completed its 5-year term on May 21, 2016.
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