Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

The Act has created a statutory body designated the Medical Council of India, charged with technical and professional responsibilities. Section 33 vests power in the Council to make regulations, with the approval of the Government of India, laying down qualifications required for appointment of persons to the teaching and allied posts in medical colleges It is common ground that we are concerned with two such medicaf colleges and to two such posts. Under the relevant regulation, for a lecturer's post in orthopedics, teaching experience in a teaching institution is a sine qua non. "We ignore some proposed change omitting '(teaching institution'). But what is 'teaching experience'? What is a 'teaching institution'? Too simple to deserve an answer, one might be tempted to think; but too abstruse, when examined in the forensic crucible, to be disposed of in less than 59 pages by the High Court and less than several hours of argument if, this Court. Legalese makes complex what looks simplex.

Now to the further facts and the legal stances. The Government of Bihar took the view, while appointing lecturers in Orthopaedics, that the first respondent did not have the necessary teaching experience in a teaching institution whereupon he sought refuse in the writ jurisdiction of the High Court and filed C.W.J.C. 754 of 1972 contending that he had acquired the required teaching experience during the time he worked in the United Kingdom and was therefore entitled to be appointed lecturer. The State met the challenge on many grounds. Inter alia, it urged that the rule does not recognize teaching experiance gained in a foreign country. A circular letter issued by the Deputy Director of Health Services, dated April 14, 1963 was also cited We agree with the High Court (vide para 24 of its judgment) that the said circular though adopted by Governm-nt on July 13. 1972 had no hearing on the crucial issue of actual teaching ing experience. The Court, however, quashed the decision of Government and directed it to reconsider the case of the 1st respondent here together with this of the other two. Government examined the cases (le novo in obdience to the direction of the Court but again held against the 1st respondent's eligibility. The aggrieved 1st respondent hurried to the High Court again and succeeded a second time in persuading it to quash the order and to issue a writ to the State to. consider the claim of Dr. Mukherjee, the 1st respondent, finding that be did possess the requisite experience. In so doing the High Court called for and examined the Cabinet papers and other reports and notings of the officers, technical and administrative. The frustrated candidates and the aggrieved State have filed the two appeals assailing the judgment on the following principle grounds :

It may straightway be mentioned that while the expressions medical institution' and 'approved institution' are defined (vide s. 2), neither 'teaching experience' nor 'teaching institution' has been defined in 'the Act, rules or regulations. Simple Anglo Saxon, the framers must have presumed, must be capable of easy understanding and interpretation. Nevertheless, counsel have argued at learned length on the semantics of those words although we are inclined to take not a pedantic nor artificial view of the import of these words but a simple common sense idea of their meaning. Of course, it would be natural to expect any authority (like the Bihar Government in this case) called upon to construe these words used in the setting of a medical statute, if in doubt, to consult the high professional authority enjoying statutory status, viz., the Medical Council of India. It was faintly suggested at the bar that the Council had given a view once but modified it a little somewhat later. We do not find any deviation and are not disposed to side-track ourselves into such non germane issues. 'if it were true that national technical bodies were shaky on crucial occasions, (although we do not find anything like that has happened here). they lend themselves to the suspicion that pressure pays We are sure they will not expose themselves to this risk. In the present case the Government of Bihar is stated to have taken a policy decision not to consult the Medical Council of India. While the appointing authority is the State Government and the responsibility for final choice vests in it. it is reasonable to consult bodies or authorities of a high technical level when the points in dispute are of a technical nature. To consult another is not to surrender to that other, but merely to seek assistance in the careful exercise of public power. All that we mean to emphasize is that the plain words we have already referred to, about the meaning of which the two sides have betted, should be read having due regard to their normal import, statutory setting, professional object and insistence on standards. Shri Jagdish Swarup, counsel for the State, took us through the various provisions of the Act and emphasised that by and large the medical institutions the Act had in view and over which the Council had control were Indian and not foreign, and that therefore the 'teaching institutions' and 'teaching experience' specified in the regulations in question also must posses Indian flavour. Patriotism apart, it is apparent from the Act that it has recognized medical insti- tutions in Universities without India (vide s. 12 and s. 14) The question is not therefore so simple as to be solved by reference to the Indian map. This country, while rejecting colonial reverence for British institutions has continued to accept and respect advances made in medical specialities abroad, including the United Kingdom and the United States, as is reflected in the Act. The India-bound construction is untenable. Equally extreme and unsustainable is the specious plea of Shri Desai that any teaching experience from any foreign teaching institution is good enough. Imagine teaching experience, acquired from some unmentionably under-developed country which is new to modern medicine being fobbed off on an Indian College Reputed institutions noted for their advanced courses of teaching and training cannot be ignored merely because they bear a foreign badge. What we have to look for is to find guidelines within the framework of the Act for fixing those foreign medical institutions. Such a nexus once, discernible might light up the otherwise illicit expressions 'teaching experience' and 'teaching institutions'. We have therefore to look, at the outset, for indicators in the Act for deciding which foreign teaching institutions may safely fall within the scope of regulation. The whole object is to see that India gets highly qualified medical teachers and this is served neither by narrow swadeshi nor by neo- colonialism. but by setting our sights on the lines of the statute. Indeed, the argument that the teaching institutions in India alone can be taken rote of had been urged and over-ruled in the first round of litigation by the High Court and the State Government had virtually accepted that decision when it examined the case of Dr. Mukherjee in accordance with the direction in writ petition C.W.J.C. No. 754 of 1972. Teaching institutions abroad not being ruled out, we consider it right to reckon as competent and qualitatively acceptable those institutions which are linked with, or are recognised as teaching institutions by the Universities and organisations in Schedule 11 and Schedule III and recognised by the Central Government under s. 14. Teaching institutions as such may be too wide if extended all over the globe but viewed in the perspective of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 certainly they cover institutions expressly embraced by the provisions of the statute. If those institutions are good enough for the important purposes of ss. 12, 13 and 14, it is reasonable to infer they are good enough for the teaching experience gained therefrom being reckoned as satisfactory. In this view the problem is whether the institutions referred to in the testimonials of Dr. Mukherjee come within the above recognised categories. We have also to see whether Dr. Mukherjee's' service in those institutions as a Registrar, even if assumed in his favour, amount to teaching experience. We will deal with these two decisive questions presently.

It was the duty of Government to be satisfied, on reasonable materials, that (a) the U.K. hospitals relied on by the 1st respondent are teaching institutions an explained by us after a study of the spirit of the statute; (b) the posts of Registrar in which he worked for 3 years involved teaching functions, the question being looked at fairly, not by semantic hair-splitting and quibbling on words like 'participating' in teaching; (c) the testimonials or written testimony from any British (or Indian, for that matter) Orthopaedics Professor will taken at its face value except where grave suspicion. taints such document, high-placed academic men being assumed to be veracious in the absence, of clear contrary indications; (d) Indian experience, if any, of the' 1st respondent, will also be paid attention, provided it satisfied the dual tests contained in the regulation. We are satisfied that the State has made short shrift of Dr. Mukherjee by preliminary screening. The nothings and reports. and vacillating opinions entertained by Government, at various stages do not detain us as they are incidental to any administrative decision and cannot be espied with a suspicious eye by Court. Governmental ways may not In familiar for forensic processes but for that reason cannot be suspected. We have already observed that at the first flush the 1st respondent looks like eligible and highly qualified but there may be more than meets the eye. Government may investigate and be satisfied about the real qualifications. In the interests of justice and in view of the ambiguous thinking on this question at administrative levels we regard it as necessary to give the candidates time till the end of January, 1975 to produce evidence of the 1st respondent's teaching experience in teaching institutions as interpreted by us. Government will give a fair consideration to the qualifications and relative worth of all the candidates. Length of teaching experience will certainly be a relevant- not necessarily dominant-factor. The quality of their expe- rience, their academic attainments and the intellectual ability to stimulate students in the speciality and the investigative curiosity likely to be imparted to the alumni- these weighty considerations will promote public weal in a country hungering for talented doctors. Government's sole concern, we feel confident, will be to Get the most capable, in the public interest and in- the hope that this happy wish will not fail we proceed to issue the substantive declarations and directions.