Cuttack: The division bench of Chief Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh and Justice MS Raman of the Orissa High Court ordered for the personal appearance of the chairman of Odisha Council for Medical Registration (OCMR) while hearing a petition on fake doctors filed by the Odisha State Legal Services Authority. The division bench said, the presence of the chairman OCMR was necessary for eliciting opinion from him to effectively deal with the menace.
“On the next date we shall also take up the issue of non-compliance of previous orders passed by the court in present proceedings,” the bench added while fixing the next hearing on the matter to after one week. “There cannot be gain saying that conduct of persons acting as doctors without any valid degree/certificate constitute criminal offences. We do not have any clue as to whether any criminal cases have been registered in this regard,” the bench observed adding, “We shall address this aspect on the next date.”
In previous orders, the court had asked the government to give the precise timelines for completion of verification of all government facilities and private hospitals registered under the Orissa Clinical Establishments (Control & Regulation) Act, 1991. The state government was also expected to inform whether there was any surveillance mechanism to identify the fake doctors. If not, whether the state government is contemplating to introduce surveillance to curb the menace of fake doctors and what further action it proposed to take against establishments either run by the fake doctors or collaborated by them. Amicus curiae Gautam Misra had suggested creation of a comprehensive online database of all medical practitioners in the state, which will be accessible to the general public to crosscheck the genuineness of all medical practitioners. The court had directed the state government to consider implementing the suggestion as well.