TN Govt Seeks 3 Months From High Court To Replace 'Archaic' Madras Medical Council Registration Act

Advocate General R Shunmughasundaram informed the bench of Acting Chief Justice T Raja and Justice Bharatha Chakravarthy that the process needs time as it involves discussion and deliberation with experts and concerned stakeholders.

The court thus granted three months time to the state to finalise the new law. Till such time, the court allowed the current office bearers to continue functioning.

Earlier, a single bench of Justice R Subramanian had asked the government to revamp the "archaic" Madras Medical Council Registration Act. The court had noted that the Act was meant for the Madras presidency and was brought in before the linguistic division of the State.

The court had thus ordered the State to revamp the old Act within a period of three months and deferred the election for the Tamil Nadu Medical Council till that time.

Challenging the order of the single bench, the Medical Council submitted that as per the Act, seven registered medical practitioners were also to be part of the Council. However, the term of the current members was ending on February 16. The council thus pleaded the court to permit the election of such seven medical practitioners from amongst themselves.

The Council argued that the single judge's reference to the archaic provisions of the Act was with respect to the election of other members and not the practising medical practitioners. Thus, it was submitted that allowing the election of the medical practitioners will not bring any harm.

The court however opined that since the single judge had ordered for a revamp of the complete Act, it would be improper to allow election of medical practitioners according to the old Act.

Case Title: The President v. P Balakrishnan and others

Case No: WA No 29 of 2023