The Medical Council of India (MCI) has approved the decision of its Ethics Committee to permanently debar principal of JSS Medical College, Mysuru, H. Basavanagowdappa, from taking up the posts of principal/dean, administrative, medical superintendent and/or any other teaching post in any medical college.
The reason for the extreme punishment is that the MCI inspection team, during their assessment visit, had found the name of Senior Resident C. Venkatesh shown as faculty in two departments — General Medicine and Cardiology — in the JSS Medical College, during the same session.
According to the official letter of the MCI available with The Hindu , the Ethics Committee, in its meeting held on November 17 and 18 of 2014, had taken into consideration various complaints against the officials of different medical colleges and recommended punishment to the erring officials.
In the case of Dr. Basavanagowdappa, the Ethics Committee, after hearing his version, felt the principal had shown Dr. Venkatesh’s name in two departments during the MCI assessment “intentionally”. The Executive Committee of the MCI approved the recommendations of the Ethics Committee and debarred Dr. Basavanagowdappa from holding any post permanently.
The Ethics Committee also took into consideration the complaint against H. Rangappa, Dean of the Raja Rajeshwari Medical College and Hospital in Bengaluru, alleging that the name of N. Naveen, a senior resident, was found as faculty of Department of Surgery and Plastic Surgery.
The Ethics Committee, which heard Dr. Rangappa’s version, came to the conclusion his mistake was “unintentional and done without seeing the documents properly”, and was debarred from taking the posts of principal/dean, medical Superintendant and any teaching post of similar nature in any university or medical college for a period of five years. The executive committee of the MCI approved the recommendations.
In a similar complaint against the principal of Fr. Muller’s Institute of Medical Education and Research at Mangaluru, Dr. Jayaprakash, the ethics committee let him off with a warning if any irregularities are found on his part in future, the Ethics Committee may take strict action against him by compounding his earlier mistakes.
