The Saga that is about to culminate into de-recognition of CPS courses by National Medical Council (NMC)

23^rd January 2023

The saga started with a letter dated 23/01/2023 which was written by Secretary– Medical Education and Drug Deptt, Maharashtra to union secretary (Ministry of health and family welfare)

 In a letter dated 23/01/2023 addressed to the union secretary (Ministry of health and family welfare) Dr Ashwini Joshi, secretary to the government of Maharashtra wrote following things about courses being run by college of physicians and surgeons Mumbai.

 1.     The CPS courses are being run by
government as well as private medical colleges as well as by stand-alone
hospitals without any specific permission from the state government.

 2.    
Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) conducted inspections of some of
hospitals which run CPS courses. MMC visited total 120 hospitals and found that
out of 120 hospitals 2 hospitals were closed, 74 institutes refused the
inspection and 44 institutes where inspection was completed were found to have
severe deficiencies.

 3.    
The letter has also drawn the attention to various complaints and high
court cases against CPS courses particularly EP 6751/2018 in Bombay high court.

 4.   
Citing above points the secretary government of Maharashtra had
expressed her opinion that admitting students in such institutes would be
detrimental to the career of those students in particular and health system in
general.

 5.   
And then the letter asks for guidance from central government about
these courses.

  Read Letter of Secretary Medical Education Department Maharashtra here

 25rd March 2023

 CPS Knocks the Door Of Bombay High court against the show cause notice served by

As the stalemate between the state’s medical education department and the College of Physicians and Surgeons (CPS) continues over severe deficiencies noted during an inspection, the latter moved the Bombay high court on Friday over the delay in admissions and also challenged the show-cause notice issued to them by the state on March 14.

Read concerned News Here

3^rd April 2023

Centre Decides to Form A committee to look into the irregularities pointed out by Secretary– Medical Education and Drug Deptt, Maharashtra

Almost a month after the state medical education department wrote to the Union health ministry drawing attention to the “deficiencies” in the courses offered by the Parel-based College of Physicians & Surgeons (CPS), the Centre has set up an eight-member committee to look into matters relating to the 111-year-old institute.

In an order dated April 3, the ministry said the new committee, which will be headed by Directorate General of Health Services chief Dr Atul Goel, will consider matters relating to “recognition of CPS courses” and “continued admission to these courses”.

Read Details Here

13th April 2023  

And this has culminated into NMC directing central govt that CPS courses be de-recognised because accprding to NMC courses run by CPS, Mumbai does not come under the monitoring control of the National Medical Commission

Read NMC letter recommending de-recognition of CPS courses here.

 25th April 2023  

On 25^th April High court rejects writ petition challenging show cause notice by secretary medical education dept of maharashtra

While till here the things were under control. On many occasions Hon high court has come to the rescue of students but CPS’s advocate committed a blunder in affidavit and said something which has not gone well with the Hon High court

In its Affadavit CPS through its advocate apparently said this

“there is no question of de-recognising the course and that recognising or de-recognising an institution is not CPS’s concern”

Coming down heavily on this sentence Hon Bombay High court rejected the writ petition challenging show cause notice by medical education department of Maharashtra and said something which is very very unnerving

Mr Kadam says there is no question of de-recognising the course and that recognising or de-recognising an institution is not CPS’s concern. We disagree. We do not see how CPS can then have a cause of action in the Writ Petition at all, because if it is not concerned with the institutions then it merely had to say so and it would not be concerned with the show cause notice either. If its intention is that CPS diploma courses must be allowed to run, then they have to be run in a manner that is both meaningful and does not do violence to the statutory intent. Those courses are post graduate diplomas available where attempts at regular post graduate admissions have failed. Hence there is a separate round of counselling for the CPS diploma courses. It can hardly be suggested that CPS, which designs and programs the courses, has no concern with where they are being taught, or how they are being taught, or even if they are being taught at all, or that these are matters of complete irrelevance or indifference to CPS. Surely if it is a CPS course and recognised as such, then CPS must know — and must demand to know and have a record — of who is running that course that bears the CPS name, where that course is being offered, and with what capability. That is surely not too much to ask.

Read Judgment of Hon Bombay High court Here