Himachal Pradesh High Court
Ramesh Chander vs The State Of Hp And on 24 December, 2025
Author: Sandeep Sharma
Bench: Sandeep Sharma
RAMESH CHANDER Versus THE STATE OF HP AND .
ANOTHER CWP-19657 of 2025 24.12.2025 Present: Mr. Dilip Sharma, Senior Advocate with Mr. Mohit Sharma, Advocate, for the petitioner.
Mr. Rajan Kahol & Mr. Vishal Panwar, Additional of Advocates General with Mr. Ravi Chauhan, Deputy Advocate General, for the non-applicants/ respondents.
rt Petitioner herein, who at present is working as Designated Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Medicine at Dr. SLBSGMC, Nerchowk, is aggrieved by non-consideration of his candidature for promotion to the post of Assistant Professor on regular basis in Community Medicine. Petitioner's case is not being considered on the ground that he does not possess requisite qualification as per 1999 Recruitment & Promotion Rules, which were further amended in the year 2006. As per petitioner, he possesses the requisite qualification for the post in question as per MCI/NMC Regulations.
Taking note of aforesaid grouse of the petitioner, this Court vide order dated 22.12.2025, called upon learned Additional Advocate General to have instrctions that once department earlier known as Public Health/Preventive & Social Medicine has been re-designated as Community Medicine/Community Health Administration, coupled with the fact that necessary qualification for the post in question or in ::: Downloaded on - 24/12/2025 20:37:06 :::CIS other faculties is required to be prescribed in consonance with .
the guidelines issued by the MCI/NMC, why candidature of the petitioner, who claims himself to be qualified in terms of guidelines of NMC, is not being considered?
Pursuant to afore order passed by this Court Mr. of Vishal Panwar, learned Additional Advocate General, has placed on record communication dated 23.12.2025 issued under the rt signatures of Special Secretary (Health) to the Government of Himachal Pradesh, enclosing therewith copy of proceedings of the meeting of Screening Committee held under the Chairmanship of Director Medical Education & Research, Himachal Pradesh on 14.11.2025 at 11:30 a.m. to examine the eligibility of DNB as well as PG Medical Officers (Specialist) of the State for appointment/promotion to the faculty post in the Government Medical Colleges of the State on basis of prevailing Recruitment & Promotion Rules and NMC norms. Aforesaid documents are taken on record. If aforesaid documents are perused in their entirety, they reveal that case of the petitioner has been primarily rejected on two grounds; one, he does not possess MD Degree in Social & Preventive Medicine/Community Medicine, and second that he does not have three years teaching experience as Lecturer/Registrar/Demonstrator, Senior Resident.
During proceedings of the case, Mr. Dilip Sharma, learned Senior Counsel for the petitioner, made this Court ::: Downloaded on - 24/12/2025 20:37:06 :::CIS peruse communication dated 02.04.2025 (Annexure P-4) .
(available at page No.131 of the paper book) issued by the Professor & Head Department of Community Medicine SLBS Government Medical College Mandi at Nerchowk, Himachal Pradesh, to demonstrate that petitioner has worked as Senior of Resident for three years and he has three years experience of teaching as has been certified by the Head of the Deparment.
rt Having carefully perused afore document, Mr. Vishal Panwar, learned Additional Advocate General, states that though petitioner can be said to have possessed requisite experience of teaching after Post Graduation as is otherwise required under the Recruitment & Promotion Rules, but since petitioner has not done MD Degree in Social & Preventive Medicine/Community Medicine, no illegality can be said to have been committed by the respondents, while not considering the candidature of the petitioner for promotion to the post of Assistant Professor at Community Medicine.
Mr. Dilip Sharma, learned Senior Counsel for the petitioner, invited attention of this Court to notification dated 08.07.2011 (Annexure P-2) (available at page No.85 of the paper book), to state that for Department of the Community Medicine, MD (Community Health Administration)/ MD (Health Administration) have been held to be essential qualification. At this stage, it would be apt to take note note of Notification dated 08.07.2011:-
::: Downloaded on - 24/12/2025 20:37:06 :::CIS"MEDICAL COUNCIL OF INDIA .
NOTIFICATION New Delhi, the 8th July, 2011 No. MCI-12(2)/2010-Med. Misc./28693.-In exercise of the powers conferred by Section 33 of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 (102 of 1956), the Medical Council of India with the previous sanction of the Central Government, hereby makes the following Regulations to further amend the of "Minimum Qualifications for Teachers in Medical Institutions Regulations, 1998", namely:
1. (i) These Regulations may be called the rt Minimum Qualifications for Teachers in Medical Institutions (Amendment) Regulations, 2011".
(ii) They shall come into force from the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.
2. In the "Minimum Qualification for Teachers in Medical Institutions Regulations, 1998", the following additions/modifications/deletions/substitutions, shall be, as indicated therein:-
3(i) In the "Minimum Qualification for Teachers in Medical Institutions Regulations, 1998", in 'Table-l' under the heading "Requirements of Academic Qualifications", in the column of Academic Qualifications' against the department of 'Community Medicine', the following shall be added after M.D. (Community Medicine):-
"M.D. (Community Health Administration) /M.D. (Health Administration)"
Though Mr. Vishal Panwar, learned Additional Advocate General, after having perused aforesaid document, attempted to argue that till the time afore qualification as precribed by the MCI/NMC is incorporated in the Recruitment & Promotion Rules, same cannot be made basis for appointment to the post of Assistant Professor, however, this ::: Downloaded on - 24/12/2025 20:37:06 :::CIS Court is not persuaded to agree with Mr. Panwar, for the reason .
that responsible authority for providing essential qualification in medical courses is National Medical Commission as has been held by this Court as well as Hon'ble Apex Court in catena of cases. If it is so, essential qualification as prescribed by the of MCI/NMC is required to be incorporated in the Recruitment & Promotion Rules, if any, framed by the State for rt appointment/promotion to various teaching faculties of medical colleges. Interestingly, in the case at hand, notification, specifically providing therein that MD (Community Health Administration)/(Health Administration) shall also be considered as one of the qualifications for the Department of Community Medicine was issued in the year 2011, but till date no steps whatsoever have been taken by the respondent-State to amend the Recruitment & Promotion Rules to make it in consonance with the guidelines/instructions issued by the MCI/NMC. Moreover, this Court finds that Committee, which was given task to examine the eligibility of Medical Officer (Specialist) of the State for appointment/promotion to the faculty post in Government Medical Colleges of the State to assess eligibility on the basis of Recruitment & Promotion Rules as well as NMC norms, has conveniently ignored the NMC norms and proceeded to reject the candidature of the petitioner on the ground that he does not possess requisite qualifications as prescribed under Recruitment & Promotion Rules. No doubt, ::: Downloaded on - 24/12/2025 20:37:06 :::CIS Recruitment & Promotion Rules are sacrosanct for making .
appointment and promotion in the State, but once it is not in dispute that MCI/NMC is the supreme body for prescribing minimum qualifications/eligibility criteria for teaching faculty in medical colleges and its recommendation are binding upon the of State, coupled with the fact that in the year 2011, MCI had made recommendations for including MD (Community Health rt Administration)/ MD (Health Administration) as essential qualification for Department of Community Medicine and the same was further reiterated in NMC Regulations notified on 14.2.2022 (Annexure P-2/A) and 30.6.2025 (Annexure P-2/B), prima facie this Court finds substance in the claim of the petitioner for being considered against the post of Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Medicine.
In view of the above, this Court, pending reply, deems it fit to order that case of the petitioner shall also be considered provisionally for promotion to the post of Assistant Professor in Community Medicine on the basis of his having possessed Degree in MD (Community Health Administration) and three years experience of Senior Resident after Post Graduation as has been verified by Head of the Department of Community Medicine vide communication dated 02.04.2025 (Annexure P-4), however, selection, if any, shall be subject to the outcome of the writ petition.
::: Downloaded on - 24/12/2025 20:37:06 :::CISList on 10.03.2026. In the In the meantime, .
respondents may file reply.
December 24, 2025 (Sandeep Sharma),
(sunil) Judge
of
rt
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