New Delhi, Dec 17 (IANS): The Delhi High Court on Thursday sought response from the central government and others over a petition challenging the provisions of the law which allows unregistered and unqualified non-medical persons to sign medical diagnostic reports.

A Division Bench of the high court presided over by Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan issued notice to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the National Medical Commission seeking their response over a plea filed by Rohit Jain, a doctor, through lawyer Mrinmoi Chatterjee.

The plea challenged the Clinical Establishments (Central Government) Amendment Rules, 2020 by way of which the Respondent no. 1 (Health Ministry) has now allowed unregistered and unqualified nonmedical persons viz. M.Sc./Ph.D holders to sign medical diagnostic reports.

The petitioner stated that the Impugned notification has been issued without following due process of law.

"As per Clinical Establishments Act, 2010, it is mandated under Section 7 that any determination of minimum standards. for clinical establishments has to be undertaken by the National Council for Clinical Establishments, which is a 20 member committee through a consultative process. However, no member of the said committee attended the meeting held on 14-01-2020 and no consultative process was followed. The said National Council has not conducted a meeting since 13-07-2018," the plea read.

It further added that the impugned notification is against the objectives set out by the Clinical Establishment Act, 2010.

The court has now posted the matter for further hearing on January 29.