People for Better Treatment (PBT), an organization for promotion of better healthcare, has filed an appeal before the division bench in Gujarat high court against the Gujarat Medical Council (GMC) for their deliberate inaction towards terminating the medical licence of former president of the Medical Council of India, Dr Ketan Desai.
The appeal was filed after a single-judge bench had dismissed a similar petition by PBT earlier. In October 2010, MCI had directed the Gujarat Medical Council to cancel Desai’s medical registration after CBI booked him in a bribery case and also for having disproportionate assets. “Unfortunately, the GMC has staunchly shielded Dr Desai (who was the GMC president until December, 2010) and refused to cancel his licence until now and this inaction is the subject of the new complaint,” said Dr Kunal Saha, president of PBT.
“Neither MCI nor GMC are taking appropriate action against Desai. As a result, Desai has still continued to remain as a bona fide medical doctor (while facing a CBI trial),” explained Saha.
A related but separate appeal filed by PBT against Dr Desai challenging his “unopposed” election last year to the Gujarat university senate (as a doctor-member of the GMC) has already been admitted by the Supreme Court which will come for next hearing on January 20, 2012. Unless Dr Desai is removed from the Gujarat university senate by the apex court, as a medical member of the senate, he would automatically be nominated as a member of the MCI (under Indian Medical Council Act, 1956) when a new MCI is re-established by the health ministry in near future. “And as PBT foresees this, we are fighting for suspension of Desai’s licence from now,” explained Saha. PBT attorney in Gujarat, Ravish Bhatt, said, “The appeal may reach first hearing during this week.”
