Cabinet approves bill to replace Medical Council of India

A bill to replace the Medical Council of India (MCI) with a national medical commission was cleared by the Union Cabinet on Friday, Law and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

"The MCI will be replaced, and a National Medical Commission bill has been brought. This is to correct the whole medical ecosystem," he said.

The MCI is a statutory body for establishing uniform and high standards of medical education in India. The bill seeks to replace the MCI with a new Commission.

According to government sources, the National Medical Commission Bill envisages a four-tier structure for the regulation of medical education, with a 20-member National Medical Commission (NMC) at the top.

Once cleared by Parliament, the proposed bill will replace the existing Indian Medical Council (IMC) Act, 1956 which governs doctors through the Medical Council of India.

NMC will become the main regulatory body and will take over all roles and responsibilities of the MCI. 

A high-level committee headed by Niti Aayog vice chairman Arvind Panagariya had proposed to do away with the MCI. The NMC is likely to have eminent doctors and experts from related fields  on board.  The commission will have 25 members, including chairman and member secretary. 

Reports said that the new bill proposes to put an end to heavy-handed regulatory control over medical education institutions and a shift towards outcome-based monitoring. 

Watch Ravi Shankar Prasad briefing the media on Cabinet decisions: