Fake doc plea: HC asks OCMR chief to appear before it

Cuttack: The Orissa high court on Tuesday ordered the personal appearance of the chairman of Odisha Council for Medical Registration (OCMR) “for eliciting opinion from him to effectively deal with the menace of fake doctors”. The HC was hearing a PIL on fake doctors filed by Odisha State Legal Services Authority.The two-judge bench of Chief Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh and Justice M S Raman said, “Considering the significance of the issue which the present proceeding in the nature of PIL involves relating to fake doctors, we consider it proper in the interest of justice to request the chairman (of) OCMR to be present in the court on the next date when we shall take up the matter after one week.”The bench also said it cannot be denied that conduct of persons acting as doctors without any valid degree/certificate constitute criminal offences. “We do not have any clue as to whether any criminal cases have been registered in this regard. We shall address this aspect on the next date,” the bench said.“On the next date we shall also take up the issue of non-compliance of previous orders passed by the court in present proceedings,” the bench added.Earlier, the HC had directed the state govt to inform whether there was any surveillance mechanism to identify fake doctors or if not, whether it is contemplating to introduce surveillance to curb the menace as well as further action it proposes to take against establishments either run by fake doctors or collaborated by them.
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