High Court orders notice on tamilnadu IMA's writ plea against CE ACT.

CHENNAI, August 3, 2011
High Court orders notice on IMA's writ plea
Special Correspondent  

The Madras High Court on Monday ordered notice on a writ petition by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) seeking to declare certain provisions of the Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2010 as ultra vires the Constitution. In the petition filed through counsel B. Cheran, the association's Tamil Nadu honorary secretary J.A. Jayalal stated that the legislation was opposed to public interest and public policy. The impugned Act had the effect of “wrongfully depriving several millions of people of adequate healthcare facilities, because the legislation places several unreasonable restrictions on the medical profession, which directly affect small clinical establishments.” The petitioner said that in the Act it was stated that the legislation would come into force in Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Sikkim and Union Territories. This was particularly surprising. There was no basis to justify restricting the Act to certain territories alone and to cast an inordinate burden on clinical establishments in certain territories, while the objectives were to ensure uniformity in standards and facilities.

The Act in the present form was an “unreasonable fetter” on the right of medical practitioners to their occupation and was liable to be struck down. The legislation left ample scope for abuse of administrative power. It required clinical establishments to provide for multi-specialty facilities and emergency care. It was silent on the issue of how these establishments would be remunerated for the emergency and multi-specialty service. The petitioner challenged sections 1 (3), 2 (c), 2 (d), 2 (h), 2 (o), 3, 10 (1), 11, 12,13,25 and 41.