Maharashtra Govt Questions IMA Standing in Bombay HC Over Homoeopaths Allopathy Row
The Maharashtra government has questioned the Indian Medical Association's (IMA) locus standi before the Bombay High Court in Mumbai to challenge legal provisions that permit homoeopathy practitioners who complete the Certificate Course in Modern Pharmacology (CCMP) to practise modern medicine across the state.
A bench comprising Justices Riyaz Chagla and Farhan Dubash was hearing a petition filed by the IMA challenging the 2014 amendments made to the Maharashtra Medical Council Act (MMCA) and the Maharashtra Medical Practitioners Act. These amendments introduced the CCMP, allowing homoeopaths trained under the programme to practise allopathy.
During the hearing, Advocate General Milind Sathe argued that the IMA is merely a voluntary association of doctors and has failed to establish how it suffered any legal injury due to the amendments. The state maintained that the association cannot contest the constitutional validity of a statute simply because it disagrees with the legislative provisions.
Sathe submitted that the IMA must demonstrate its locus standi and legal injury before seeking court intervention to review the validity of the legislation. The state highlighted that the challenge was not based on any alleged violation of doctors' fundamental right to practise their profession under Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution.
The government pointed out that the IMA had primarily questioned the legislative competence of the state to introduce the amendments. It maintained that the court should not determine the validity of an enactment in a vacuum when the petitioner has not shown how it is directly affected by the law.
Addressing the debate over the registration regime, the state contended that Maharashtra law creates a distinct state-level registration mechanism that has existed as part of state legislation since 1965. The court examined the distinction between central and state medical registers. The state argued that while the Indian Medical Council Act regulates recognised qualifications for modern medicine at the central level, the registration to practise within Maharashtra is governed by state legislation.
The state further noted that the Indian Medical Council, the statutory body under the earlier central statute, has since been replaced by the National Medical Commission (NMC). It stressed that neither the statutory medical regulator nor the NMC was a petitioner in the challenge.
In September 2025, the High Court had refused to grant an interim stay on such registrations, making them subject to the final outcome of the main petitions. The court had also directed CCMP practitioners not to exceed their prescribed competency and instructed them to refer serious medical cases to fully qualified allopathy doctors. Arguments in the matter are scheduled to continue on Friday.
