Summary
In October 2026, the National Medical Commission denotified and withdrew its Maintenance of Standards of Medical Education Regulations, 2023 (MSMER), which allowed fines of up to Rs 5 lakh on faculty members and administrators who submitted false information.
The NMC says MSMER created a parallel route through which its undergraduate and postgraduate boards evaluated institutions, overlapping with the Medical Assessment and Rating Board. Under the 2023 Establishment of Medical Institutions, Assessment and Rating Regulations, the MARB can still fine institutions up to Rs 1 crore, cut seats and stop admissions and the Postgraduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023 still allow fines on individual faculty.
An editorial in The Hindu questions why the whole regulation had to go. It points to RTI replies in which the NMC said the MARB had not formally assessed or rated colleges and to a 15-day appeal window in the MARB rules that may clash with the 60 days allowed by the NMC Act.
WHY IT MATTERS FOR UPSC & STATE PCS
The NMC's withdrawal of MSMER 2023 removes personal fines for false data in medical colleges at a time when MBBS capacity has crossed 1.4 lakh seats. It has raised questions about whether the MARB is actually enforcing standards and publishing its assessments.
Standard News
Simplifying the Rulebook or Disarming It?
The Tension
Removing overlapping regulation is good governance. Removing the only penalty aimed at the individual who falsifies data is something else. The National Medical Commission's withdrawal of the Maintenance of Standards of Medical Education Regulations, 2023 (MSMER) does both at once. The question is which one it mainly is.
What Changed
- MSMER allowed fines of up to Rs 5 lakh on faculty members and administrators who submitted false information. It had been welcomed as a weapon against ghost faculty and ghost patients.
- The NMC says MSMER let its undergraduate and postgraduate boards run a parallel evaluation route, overlapping with the Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB).
- What remains: the MARB can fine institutions up to Rs 1 crore under the 2023 EMIAR Regulations. The Postgraduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023 still allow fines on individual faculty.
The Case for the NMC
This argument deserves to be taken seriously. One assessor is cleaner than three. The NMC Act gives the MARB the inspection and rating role and a second route through other boards blurs that line. Every additional inspection channel is also another place where a bribe can be paid.
In July 2025, the CBI alleged a pan-India network that manipulated NMC inspections and arranged ghost faculty, including a reported Rs 66 lakh bribe linked to a Warangal college. Institutional penalties are not weak either: seat cuts and stopped admissions hit owners where it hurts, while personal fines can land on junior faculty pressured by management into signing.
The Case Against But a
single assessor is only worth having if it actually works and the record raises doubts. In an RTI matter, the NMC said in 2024 that the MARB had not formally assessed or rated medical colleges and that its standard forms need not be made public.
A revised reply in October 2025 said the responding officer's records held no such assessment reports. The MARB's own regulations require it to publish annual assessment results. A further problem: the MARB's 15-day appeal deadline may conflict with the 60 days allowed under the NMC Act, which invites litigation that could hold up every penalty.
TAN's Position
TAN's position is that the NMC was entitled to remove the overlap, but not to remove personal deterrence along with it before showing that the MARB is working. Consolidation is defensible. A blanket withdrawal with no evidence of MARB enforcement is not. The NMC should:
- Restore individual liability for anyone who signs a false declaration, within the EMIAR framework.
- Publish the MARB's assessments, as its own regulations already require.
- Align the appeal window with the 60 days in the Act, so that penalties stand up in court. With 1,40,664 MBBS seats and over half of them private, a regulator can't ask the public to trust an assessor whose record it won't publish.
Quick Facts
Key numbers & takeaways — revise these first
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MSMER 2023 allowed fines of up to Rs 5 lakh on individual faculty and administrators for submitting false information; it has now been withdrawn. 2.
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Under the EMIAR Regulations 2023, the MARB can fine institutions up to Rs 1 crore and can also reduce seats, stop admissions or withhold accreditation for up to five academic years. 3.
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The Postgraduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023 remain in force and still allow fines on individual faculty at postgraduate colleges. 4.
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Section 26 of the NMC Act, 2019 empowers the MARB to inspect and rate medical institutions. 5.
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Section 28 of the NMC Act allows 60 days for a first appeal to the NMC and 30 days for a second appeal to the Central Government; the MARB regulations set a 15-day appeal deadline. 6.
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In 2024, the NMC stated in an RTI matter that the MARB had not formally assessed or rated colleges; the Central Information Commission revealed this in 2025. 7.
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2026-27: 839 medical colleges with 1,40,664 MBBS seats, excluding Institutes of National Importance; the private sector holds over 54 percent of them. 8.
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In April 2025, the NMC mandated face-based Aadhaar attendance for faculty to curb ghost faculty.
Connect the dots for your UPSC preparation.
Standard news covers the event. Log in to read our comprehensive analysis and uncover the hidden constitutional, structural, and ethical dimensions of this topic:
The full case for the withdrawal: why one assessor can mean fewer points for bribes and why institutional penalties may hit owners harder than personal fines hit faculty.
The RTI trail in detail: what the NMC said about the MARB in 2024, what its October 2025 revised reply added and what the MARB's own regulations require it to publish.
How the 15-day versus 60-day appeal conflict could hold up penalties in court and the fix.
TAN's three conditions for accepting the withdrawal and the evidence that would change our position.
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