Team Goemkarponn
PANAJI: An advocate has approached the Bombay High Court at Goa, contesting the manner in which the Goa Medical Council (GMC) dealt with a complaint involving allegations of unregistered medical practice, including a surgical procedure carried out in 2023.
Advocate Moses Pinto has filed a writ petition questioning an order issued by the Ethics and Disciplinary Committee (EDC) of the GMC on July 19, 2024, along with the National Medical Commission’s (NMC) decision to reject his appeal against that order.
According to the petition, Pinto underwent a laparoscopic appendectomy at a private hospital in Margao on August 1, 2023. He has alleged that the surgeon who performed the procedure was not registered with the Goa Medical Council at the relevant time. Pinto has further stated that he later suffered serious post-surgical complications and had to undergo corrective treatment at a hospital in New Delhi, where a retained appendiceal stump was allegedly identified.
In January 2024, Pinto lodged a formal complaint with the GMC, accusing the doctor of professional misconduct, practising medicine without valid registration and failing to obtain proper informed consent. The petition notes that while the EDC recorded that the surgeon had been practising in Goa for several months without being registered, the committee imposed a penalty of ₹10,000 and did not recommend any additional disciplinary action. Pinto has also challenged the subsequent grant of what he has described as “retrospective registration” to the doctor.
Following the GMC order, Pinto filed an ethics appeal before the National Medical Commission. However, in a communication dated November 20, 2024, the NMC declined to entertain the appeal, citing provisions of the National Medical Commission Act, 2019, and stating that the complainant was not a medical professional and therefore lacked locus to file such an appeal.
In the present writ petition, filed after the High Court granted him liberty to do so earlier, Pinto has sought directions for a fresh consideration of the GMC’s disciplinary decision and a declaration that the NMC’s refusal to hear his appeal was arbitrary and unsustainable. He has also sought interim relief, including directions to flag the concerned doctor’s registration status until the matter is finally adjudicated.
