SC Agrees to Hear Plea Against Justice Lodha Panel Overseeing MCI

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a petition filed by Dr. Anand Rai who exposed the Vyapam scam. He accused that the Oversight Committee which was appointed by Apex court has overstepped the assigned job of monitoring Medical Council of India (MCI). The committee is being led by former Chief Justice of India R.M. Lodha.

The Chief Justice of India T.S Thakur ordered that the Petition will be called for hearing on August 29 before the bench of Justice Anil R. Dave. The constitution bench which was led by Dave invoked rare and extraordinary powers of the apex court under Article 142 of the constitution to set up a three-member committee to oversee the functioning of MCI for at least a year. The judgement was given by the constitution of committee headed by R.M Lodha in May 2016.

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According to the report of Parliamentary Standing Committee which was submitted in March 2016, mentioned that the medical education in India has become corrupt, and the system was an utter failure.

The petition alleged that the panel has granted recognition and gave permission to the colleges to increase the intake. The committee violated the strict orders of Supreme Court.

The petition claimed that the committee had acted in contravention to Article 14 and Article 21 of Indian Constitution. The committee neither took the decisions based on the interests of public nor fulfil the test of reasonableness.

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The petition also mentioned that the committee approved the applications submitted by various medical colleges for increasing intake without conducting any inspection. The panel also approved a majority of applications by medical colleges seeking renewal of permission for the year 2016-17 on August 13 and 14, 2016.