NON MBBS PROFESSORS IN PRE CLINIC & PARACLINIC CAN BE HOD OF DEPARTMENT ,HC DIRECTS MCI 

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In a judgment that will change the way heads of departments are designated in medical institutes, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled that a non-medico qualified to be a professor cannot be denied the post.The court, in its 164-page judgment, ruled that it would have struck down a clause whereby the qualification of MBBS or equivalent has been prescribed for designation as the HoD. However, the clause was being “read down to save it from unconstitutionality”.

     The judgment by Justice Rajiv Sharma and Justice Harinder Singh Sidhu came more than four years after the Medical Council of India’s executive committee considered a Council Assessors’ report before noting that the HoDs of pre and para clinical departments could not be non-medical degree holders.Designated as HoDs of the Pharmacology and Anatomy departments at the Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, Chandigarh, in January 2008 and September 2010, Professor CS Gautam and another petitioner had earlier moved the court. Their counsel Anupam Gupta had claimed that they were removed as HoDs on February19, 2015, in violation of the principles of natural justice.

Speaking for the Bench, Justice Sharma asserted that the MCI’s stand was that the petitioners were not possessing the MBBS degree. It was true they obtained the MSc qualification and acquired PhD and were appointed professors on the basis of qualifications prescribed in a table in the Minimum Qualifications for Teachers in Medical Institutions Regulations, 1998. However, a clause in the regulation prescribed qualification of MBBS or equivalent for designation as the HoD. 
           “What has been specifically provided to them could not be taken back by the clause… Since the petitioners have been found eligible and qualified for the post of Professor in the discipline of pharmacology and anatomy, they could not be declared ineligible to be HoDs…. The prescription of academic qualification for the HoD is irrational, arbitrary and discriminatory. The clause and the qualifications prescribed in the table are required to be harmonised.”

Justice Sharma added that the HoD was not an academic, but an administrative post to deal with the day-to-day administration in the department. The classification of pre and para clinical subjects was violative of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution.

All professors constituted homogeneous class, who fulfilled essential educational qualification prescribed in the tables contained in the regulations, and could not be discriminated only on the basis of the clause in it. “Since the petitioners are qualified to be professors, there is no reason why they are not qualified or eligible to discharge the duties of the office of the HoD”, Justice Sharma asserted.

Allowing the petition, the Bench added that there was also violation of principles of natural justice and the reason behind the impugned order was not assigned. The petitioners had legitimate expectation to continue to discharge the duties of the HoD.

The controversy lies in fact that Clause 2 of Schedule I of the 1998 Regulations lays down that in the departments of Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, Pharmacology and Microbiology, non-medical teachers may be appointed to the extent of 30 per cent of the total posts in the department. However, the HoDs of pre and para clinical subjects are required to possess recognised basic university degree qualification — MBBS or equivalent qualification but now it has been struckoff by this order of HC until challenged in Supreme Court.