MCI talks tough – upholds decision to debar Principal from occupying any position
The Medical Council of India (MCI), approving the decision of its Ethics Committee has decided to permanently debar the principal of JSS Medical College, Mysore, Dr H. Basavanagowdappa, from taking up the posts of principal/dean, administrative, medical superintendent and/or any other teaching post in any medical college.
The reason for the extreme punishment is that, during their assessment visit, the MCI inspection team found the name of Senior Resident Dr. C. Venkatesh shown as faculty in two departments, General Medicine and Cardiology, during the same session. The Ethics Committee after hearing Dr. Basavanagowdappa’s version, felt that the principal had mentioned Dr. Venkatesh’s name “intentionally” in two departments. The Executive Committee of the MCI approved the recommendations of the Ethics Committee and debarred him from holding any post permanently.
In its meeting held on November 17 and 18 of 2014, The Ethics Committee had taken into consideration various complaints against the officials of different medical colleges and recommended punishment to the erring officials. They also took into consideration the complaint against Dr. H. Rangappa, Dean of the Rajarajeshwari Medical College and Hospital in Bengaluru, alleging that the name of Dr. N. Naveen, a senior resident, was found as faculty of Department of Surgery and Plastic Surgery. The Ethics Committee, after hearing Dr. Rangappa’s version, came to the conclusion that his mistake was “unintentional and done without seeing the documents properly,” and was debarred from taking the posts of principal/dean, medical Superintendent and any teaching post of similar nature in any university or medical college for a period of five years. The executive committee of the MCI approved the recommendations.
A similar complaint against Dr. Jayaprakash, the principal of Fr. Muller’s Institute of Medical Education and Research at Mangalore, the ethics committee however let him off with a warning that if any irregularities are found on his part in future, they may take strict action against him by compounding his earlier mistakes.
Recently MCI has become proactive about the issue of ghost faculty and are in the process of implementing RFID technology for detecting the same. Within days after announcing such measures, 7 ghost faculties were debarred from Andhra and Telangana.
