IMPORTANT POINT
Regulation 7.7 of the Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002, allows for the removal of a doctor's name from the register for professional misconduct, but does not preclude other punishments as stipulated in Regulation 8.2.

JUDGMENT (Oral)

SUBRAMONIUM PRASAD, J.

1. The Petitioner seeks to challenge the Order dated 13.08.2019 passed by the Medical Council of India issuing a warning to Dr. Ravi Kumar and Dr. Arti Lalchandani not to issue any opinion letters without seeing the patients.

2. The Petitioner herein is the complainant. The Petitioner approached the UP State Medical Council alleging misconduct on the part of one Dr. Arti Lalchandani and Dr. Ravi Kumar for issuing a certificate dated 09.07.2014. The said certificate reads as under:

3. The allegation of the Complainant, who herself is a Doctor, is that Dr. Arti Lalchandani and Dr. Ravi Kumar issued the certificate even without examining the Complainant/Petitioner.

4. The UP State Medical Council warned the said doctors not to issue certificates/opinions without examining the patients. The said decision was challenged by the complainant before the Medical Council of India.

5. The Medical Council of India by the order impugned herein after examining the Petitioner herein, who is a Doctor herself and MD in Anesthesia, and after examining the concerned doctors, observed as under:

"The Committee further noted that now, the appellant namely Dr. Neena Raizada has received an order dated 04.06.2018 from / passed by Uttar Pradesh Medical Council. The relative part of the order is as under :

"... Looking into records and listening to version of doctors as well as complainant, it was observed that Dr. Ravi Kumar and Dr. Arti Laldandani should not have given their opinion on their official letterhead without having examined the patient personally. Both Dr. Ravi Kumar and Dr. Arti Lalchandani are warned not to issue any opinion letters on official letterhead in future."

Further, the committee noted that Dr. Neena Raizada was not satisfied with the order dated 04.06.2018 passed by Uttar Pradesh Medical Council and Filed an appeal dated 26.07.2018 before the Medical Council of India within the stipulated time frame of 06 months.

The Ethics Committee further discussed the matter in detail and after detailed deliberation, the Committee decided to accept the said appeal.

The Committee further decided to call both the parties the appellant namely Dr. Neena Raizada and the respondent doctors for hearing alongwith all the supportive documents available with them in the next/subsequent meeting.

Whereas, the Ethics Committee of the Council investigated the matter and recorded the statements of Dr. Neena Raizada, Dr. Arti Lalchandani & Dr. Ravi Kumar.

The above matter was considered by the Ethics Committee at its various meetings and lastly meeting held on 19t" February, 2019. The operative part of proceedings of the said meeting is reproduced as under:

" The Committee deliberated upon the matter at length and is of the unanimous opinion that issuing such type of letter/certificates to a patient without seeing/examining the patient under the letter head of IMA is a professional misconduct on the part of doctors. The Committee after detailed discussion and deliberation is of the unanimous opinion that both Dr. Ravi Kumar and Dr. Arti lalchandani are guilty for violation of Clause 7.7 of the Indian Medical Council (Professional conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002 which reads as under:"

7.7 Signing Professional Certificates, Reports and other Documents: Registered medical practitioners are in certain cases bound by law to give, or may from time to time be called upon or requested to give certificates, notification, reports and other documents of similar character signed by them in their professional capacity for subsequent use in the courts or for administrative purposes etc. Such documents, among others, include the ones given at Appendix -4. Any registered practitioner who is shown to have signed or given under his name and authority any such certificate, notification, report or document of a similar character which is untrue, misleading or improper, is liable to have his name deleted from the Register.

The Committe