The Delhi High Court recently upheld a notice issued by the Delhi Medical Council (DMC) mandating that doctors who practice allopathy in the national capital must be registered with the DMC.

The DMC additionally stated that all medical establishments must verify the validity of doctors' DMC registration before employing their services. Furthermore, establishments are required to ensure that doctors renew their registration every five years.

A Division Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora upheld the DMC's decision, noting that subjecting medical practitioners to the regulatory oversight of the State medical council serves the public interest.

The Court emphasized that this empowers the respective medical council to hold accountable any medical practitioners found engaging in wrongful conduct and enables them to take appropriate disciplinary action.

Consequently, the Court dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition filed by Dr. Namit Gupta against the DMC notice.

Dr. Gupta argued that the DMC notice would compel individuals already registered with another state's medical council to either surrender their existing registration and register with the DMC or obtain registration with both state medical councils, resulting in multiple registrations across states.

The Court noted that Sections 15(2)(b) and 27 of the previously enacted Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 (IMC Act) allowed a medical practitioner registered with a State medical council or the Indian Medical Register to practice medicine in "any State" or "any part of India." However, these expressions were omitted in the corresponding provisions of Sections 33 and 34 of the newly introduced National Medical Commission Act, 2019 (NMC Act).

“The absence of the said expressions in the NMC Act evidences that the intent of the legislature is to restrict the medical practitioners from practicing in States or Union Territories where they are not registered''

Petitioner Dr Namit Gupta was represented by advocate MC Gupta. 

Advocate Praveen Khattar appeared for the Delhi Medical Council. 

The National Medical Commission was represented by advocates T Singhdev, Aabhaas Sukhramani, Abhijit Chakravarty, Tanishq Srivastava, Bhanu Gulati, Anum Hussain and Ramanpreet Kaur. 

Case Title - Dr Namit Gupta v Delhi Medical Council & Anr