Thaindian News

New Delhi, June 16 (IANS) A doctor, who did his MBBS from Ukraine, was Tuesday denied an anticipatory bail in an alleged case of faking the Medical Council of India (MCI) certificate required to be employed in a hospital.
Additional District Judge Kamini Lau denied the bail to Vinay Kumar Singh saying no individual can play with the lives of thousands of people by using unfair means.

Applying for a job, Singh had allegedly submitted some a fake MCI certificate with the Shanti Mukaund Hospital here.

“The rules of medical practice have been formulated by the MCI so that the lives of the patients are not jeoperdised by exposing and placing them in the hands of unqualified doctors. These rules have a statutory backing and any person who does not have the requisite registration from the MCI cannot be allowed to practice as such,” Lau said.

Singh, a qualified MBBS from Kharkib State Medical University in Ukraine, had done his internship from Ram Manohar Lohia hospital in 2004. He also worked as a resident medical officer in the ICU of Jeevan Jyoti Hospital for one year.

As per MCI regulations, candidates who pursue MBBS in the universities outside India have to obtain a primary medical qualification after undergoing a screening test on return.

Singh, it is said, had applied for the MCI registration but could not clear the screening test even after five attempts.

The judge also remarked that “a large number of doctors who do not possess MCI certificates are being unauthorisedly hired and employed by many private hospitals…are being actually made to work and function as regular medical practitioners being designated as doctors.”

Singh and a co-accused had applied for employment in Shanti Mukand Hospital in 2006. The MCI registration certificates they had submitted were later found to be fake.

The court asked police to probe the role of the hospital and inquire as to why it did not verify the certificate earlier.

“The possibility of the said hospital being involved in the arm-twisting and exploitation of the applicant and other accused who are unregistered doctors cannot be ruled out and therefore, under these circumstances the role of the hospital administration also requires a probe,” the court said.

“A thorough investigation is very much essential in public interest since on one hand a fraud is being played upon the public hospital administrations jeopardising lives of patients by placing them in the hands of these unregistered doctors.

“On the other hand such institutions are involved in exploitation of such unregistered doctors who are employed by them on meager salaries,” the court said.