Docs urge L-G to expedite Delhi Medical Council reconstitution

As it has been four months since the Delhi Medical Council (DMC) was dissolved over a series of administrative and procedural lapses, the Delhi Doctors Forum has written to Lieutenant-Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena, urging immediate intervention to restore the council. Doctors said the in the absence of the council, essential services — including registrations, quackery control and medico legal support — had been disrupted, creating a regulatory vacuum.

In its letter to the L-G, the forum said: “Your office had initially directed that the council be reconstituted within two months. After the deadline lapse, a second directive was issued, requiring reconstitution within two months, and a Returning Officer was appointed. Yet, the process has repeatedly been stalled, and only now is the government notifying the elections — well beyond the time mandated by you.”

The DMC was dissolved on June 17, 2025, after complaints of financial opacity, irregular fee collection and questionable administrative decisions.

Reports had noted that the council collected nearly Rs 28 crore over recent years without proper audits or clear segregation of funds. There were also allegations of unauthorised extensions granted to the former Registrar, and lapses in maintaining statutory records.

Young doctors had earlier flagged repeated delays in registrations and a lack of grievance redressal. The forum said these lapses were not minor administrative issues, but signs of institutional failure in a body responsible for regulating medical practice in Delhi. The dissolution was followed by the Directorate General (Health Services) temporarily overseeing Registrar functions, but many statutory duties of the council remained stalled, the doctors’ body said. Doctors said the absence of a functional DMC had created many difficulties. Routine registrations had slowed down sharply. Resident doctors, interns, foreign medical graduates and private practitioners had been left waiting for approvals that were essential for legally compliant medical practice in Delhi. Quackery control had stopped, the body claimed, as had ethical and disciplinary proceedings.

Doctors facing medico-legal cases had no official support system, and hospitals had no platform for grievance redressal.

The Resident Doctors Association of AIIMS had earlier written to the Delhi Chief Minister and Health Minister describing a complete shutdown of the registration system. Hundreds of resident doctors posted at AIIMS, Safdarjung Hospital, Lok Nayak Hospital, MAMC and other institutions have been unable to secure their mandatory state registration, delaying appointment letters and salaries. The Delhi Doctors Forum said the continued delays had damaged public trust in the regulatory process and posed risks for both doctors and patients. It has requested the L-G to ensure immediate elections, and to set up temporary arrangements so that essential services could resume until a new council took charge. After the DMC’s dissolution, a five-member inquiry committee was set up in July to investigate the issues, but according to an RTI accessed and reported on by The Tribune last week, the inquiry report had not been accepted by the Health Department and remains under process.