Delhi High Court Dismisses PIL Seeking Action Against UCMS For Alleged Misappropriation Of Funds By Its Officials

The Delhi High Court has dismissed a PIL (Public Interest Litigation) that sought action against UCMS (University College of Medical Sciences) for alleged misappropriation of funds by its officials.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad held, “The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare/Respondent No.2 has also filed its counter affidavit stating that Dr. Amit Kumar Verma is the Head of the Department of Respiratory Medicine. The Office Order dated 28.06.2022 issued by the Office of the Medical Director, Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital appointing Dr. Amit Kumar Verma, Professor as the Head of the Department of Respiratory Medicine with a direction to constitute a new Department of Respiratory Medicine with 21 beds has also been filed along with the counter affidavit. … the present PIL is devoid of merits.”

The contention of the petitioner before the Bench was that without having the requisite infrastructure, students were being admitted to the UCMS in violation of the norms laid down by the National Medical Commission (NMC).

Advocate Rohit Shukla appeared for the petitioner while Advocates T. Singhdev, Nikita Bhutani, Apoorv Kurup, and Mohinder J.S. Rupal appeared for the respondents.

In this case, the petitioner, a practising Advocate filed a plea seeking issuance of a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate direction or order to initiate action against concerned officials of the NMC for conducting fraud inspections and submitting fabricated inspection reports of a non-existent department of TB & Respiratory Medicine/Pulmonary Medicine/Respiratory Medicine at the UCMS and associated GTB Hospital. He submitted that the UCMS was fraudulently misappropriating public money.

It was further stated by the petitioner that UCMS was a constituent college of the University of Delhi imparting various medical and paramedical courses to both undergraduate and postgraduate medical students after obtaining requisite approval from the NMC. It was contended that the UCMS claimed to have a full-fledged Department of TB & Respiratory Medicine/Pulmonary Medicine which it did not possess.

The High Court after hearing the contentions of the counsel observed, “The National Medical Commission (NMC) has brought out Regulations for minimum requirements which a medical college imparting education in medicine must possess which are called as Minimum Requirements for Annual MBBS Admissions Regulations, 2020. Under the said Regulations, every medical college and medical institution approved for MBBS admissions annually shall have 24 Departments wherein Department of Radiation Oncology being optional. Every medical college must have a separate Respiratory Medicine Department.”

The Court further noted that the material on record indicates that the UCMS has a separate Department of Respiratory Medicine having a Professor - Dr. Amit Kumar Verma as Head of the Department along with the other faculty members.

Accordingly, the Court dismissed the plea.

Cause Title- R K Tarun v. National Medical Commission & Ors. (Neutral Citation: 2023:DHC:4058-DB)

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