Institute of Legal and Management Studies

The Supreme Court on October 9 was informed by the Attorney General for India, R Venkataramani, that some viable solution would be arrived at to secure the future of students after the Bombay High Court recently upheld the derecognition all postgraduate medical courses offered by the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Mumbai ("CPS").

A bench comprising Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice KV Viswanathan had sought intervention of the Attorney General in this matter. The AG informed the bench that some progress has been made in order to register the students so that they can give their examinations. He said that 932 students have been identified who are awaiting the conduct of examination.

However, Senior Advocate Vikas Singh pointed out that 932 students are only those who are concerned with the National Medical Council. There are students who are registered with the State Medical Commission but they have not been identified. In this regard, the AG said that he will try to find the best modality to identify all such students whose future is in limbo.

Considering the positive development in the matter, the Court granted four weeks to the AG and passed an order: "Today, when the matter was taken up for hearing, the learned Attorney General pointed out that there has been some progress in the matter. According to the learned Attorney, they have been able to identify approximately 932 students registered with the College of Physician and Surgery. However, at this stage senior counsel Vikas Singh pointed out that 932 students are only those students who are concerned with the National Medical Commission. However, the students who have been concerned with the State Medical Commission have not been registered. In this regard also, the learned Attorney General submitted that the issue will be looked into. We request the Attorney to bring some arrangements by which the future of all these students are secured."

On August 16, 2024, the Post Graduate Medical Education Board derecognised all courses offered by the CPS on the grounds of failure to comply with the regulatory mechanism under the National Medical Commission Act, 2019 ("NMC Act"). The show cause notice stated that the CPS, Mumbai, considers itself an examination-like body National Board of Examination in Medical Sciences with authority to give medical qualification. However, the National Board is a government organisation under the NMC Act, whereas CPS is a non-government organisation and has no authority to permit or recognise any course of qualification run by any hospital or to conduct examination or award degree.

The original PIL petitioner, also a former President of the Maharashtra Medical Council, submitted that he had found that the courses offered by them were illegal as no proper permission was sought and his PIL was allowed by the High Court.

Case Details: COLLEGE OF PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON CPS HOUSE Vs SUHAS HARI PINGLE|SLP(C) No. s-13081/2025