The Patna High Court has pulled up the National Medical Commission (NMC) and state governments over the crumbling state of public healthcare, especially in Bihar, and directed urgent recruitment of medical professionals to fill the alarming number of vacancies in government hospitals and medical colleges.
In a judgment delivered on January 17, Justice Bibek Chaudhri observed that securing the physical attendance of medical faculty through stringent biometric systems would not by itself solve the deeper issue of healthcare collapse in the state. “This court anxiously notes that securing attendance of faculty members will not change the dilapidated health of health department(s) of state(s),” the bench noted.
The observations came while dismissing a batch of petitions filed by doctors and faculty members working at various government and government-aided medical institutions across Bihar. The petitioners had challenged an April 17, 2025, directive of the NMC mandating Aadhaar-based facial recognition and GPS tracking for attendance.
While the court upheld the validity of the Aadhaar-linked biometric system, rejecting privacy concerns as the sole basis of challenge, it also expressed deep concern over systemic burnout and understaffing. “If a medical officer or a faculty member is compelled to work continuously for 24 hours, or 48 hours, or even 72 hours, the fleeing away of such overburdened, if not tortured, faculty members shall remain,” the court warned.
It further criticised the current state of medical education infrastructure, pointing out that several institutions were being run by a skeletal and inefficient workforce. “State-run and government-aided medical colleges were run by an inadequate number of faculty members, inefficient contractual teachers, and less than sufficient strength of lab technicians and administrative staff,” Justice Chaudhri noted.
As a corrective step, the court directed the NMC to push state governments to initiate urgent recruitment drives to fill the “huge number of vacant posts in medical teaching service” within a time-bound framework. A copy of the order has been sent to the Secretary of the NMC for implementation, with the expectation that meaningful steps will be taken within six months.
