The Delhi High Court on Thursday, August 21, 2025, sought the Centre’s response on a petition challenging a notification that increased the limit of non-medical faculty for MBBS courses in Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Pharmacology.
The court has listed the matter for hearing in September.
A bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela issued notice to the Centre, noting that the plea argued the regulations were diluting the standards of medical education, reported The Indian Express.
What does the petition say?
The petition sought judicial intervention to strike down certain provisions of the Teachers Eligibility Qualifications in Medical Institutions Regulations, 2025, and the amendment notification of July 2, 2025, issued by the National Medical Commission (NMC).
“The impugned regulations allow individuals without an MBBS degree and clinical exposure to be appointed as faculty for undergraduate medical education, thereby diluting the standards of medical education and violating the statutory mandates of the National Medical Commission Act, 2019, as well as the Competency Based Medical Education (CBME) curriculum adopted by the NMC,” the petition said.
Increase in non-medical faculty limit
Earlier, non-medical faculty appointments were limited to 15 per cent of faculty strength in Clinical Phase I departments and allowed only when medical faculty were unavailable.
The July 2 amendment raised this limit to 30 per cent, creating a parallel non-clinical cadre without clinical experience, contrary to expectations of phasing out non-medical faculty.
