Pune: The Maharashtra medical education and drugs department on Friday directed the Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) to start the registration of homeopaths who have completed a one-year certificate course in modern pharmacology. The move comes despite a court case filed by the Indian Medical Association, challenging govt’s decision to allow homeopathic doctors to register with MMC after completing the course. MMC administrator Dr Rughwani Vinki said, “We have received the circular. We will look into it on Monday.”While the Maharashtra Homeopathy Council (MHC) welcomed the move allowing homeopaths to practice allopathy, IMA strongly objected to it. MHC administrator Bahubali Shah said, “This is a victory of truth. An organisation tried to mislead govt so that homeopathy doctors would not be registered, but the state’s Attorney General opined in our favour. Now, the registration will start soon. I appeal to all doctors in Maharashtra who have completed the course to register.” Dr Santosh Kadam, president of IMA, Maharashtra chapter, said, “We’ve taken note of the letter and our lawyers are reviewing it. Despite the matter being sub judice, govt has issued a fresh circular to begin registration, which we believe is not right. With the case pending at the Bombay High Court, we’ll approach the court to expedite the matter.”The Maharashtra medical education and drugs department’s circular, a copy of which is with TOI, allows homeopaths, who have completed the one-year course in Maharashtra, to be registered under MMC. The amendment to ensure registration was first made in 2014 under the Maharashtra Medical Council Act.State govt introduced a one-year certificate course in modern pharmacology (CCMP) in 2014 to address the doctor shortage, enabling homeopaths to practice allopathy with necessary knowledge in modern medicine. About 10,000 of 90,000 homeopathic doctors in the state have completed this course. In April, the medical education department instructed MMC to register CCMP-qualified homeopaths in a separate register starting July 15. However, following IMA’s threat of a statewide strike, govt suspended the registration process, putting the decision on hold pending further review.Thereafter, the Maharashtra medical education and drugs department formed a seven-member committee under the chairmanship of the commissioner of medical education, research and directorate of Ayush, asking it to submit a report. Meanwhile, govt sought the opinion of the state advocate general on whether MMC maintaining a separate register of homeopathic practitioners could raise any clash between allopathic and homeopathic doctors or whether it would be in contempt of the court’s order of 2016 in this regard.In the circular, the state advocate general was quoted as saying, “I am in agreement with the views expressed by the law and judiciary department that there is no impediment by way of any order of the court, which prohibits maintenance of the register as per the provisions of Section 2(h) of MMC Act. However, the preparation of the said register shall be subject to the final orders of the HC in the pending proceedings and no equities can be claimed on the basis of the register having been prepared or the names having been entered in the register or for any other reason.“
