The National Medical Commission (NMC) has announced the cancellation of three subjects—Emergency Medicine, and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation—that are required for the MBBS curriculum. On Friday, the NMC informed the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court that these subjects will now be included as part of General Medicine. In response, the High Court questioned the Commission’s decision to exclude Respiratory Medicine, underlining the importance of this subject during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Court also asked for the reason behind including such an important subject in General Medicine. It gave the Commission three weeks to explain the decision and asked the petitioner to respond. The case was heard by Justice Bharti Dangre and Justice Abhay Mantri.
In response to the NMC’s counsel stating that the subject would be included in General Medicine, the petitioner’s counsel argued that this change could negatively impact the availability of doctors in hospitals for these important areas. If the subject is removed, the teaching staff for these courses would also no longer be available at 706 medical colleges across the country.
The Commission informed the High Court that these subjects were not completely removed but were instead merged into General Medicine to lighten the curriculum for undergraduate medical students. However, the petitioner’s counsel argued that this decision would deny students essential courses and negatively affect the healthcare provided to the general public.
The PIL was filed by Dr. Rajesh Swarnkar, Treasurer of the Indian Chest Society, and Dr. Ganesh Joshi, a member of the Indian Association of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
Since the National Medical Commission took over from the Medical Council of India on August 8, 2019, it released new guidelines in June 2023 that removed these three departments from the list of essential subjects. The High Court allowed the petitioner to challenge the new guidelines and instructed them to file a counter-affidavit, if needed, in response to the Commission’s affidavit. Advocate Tushar Mandlekar represented the petitioners.