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Statement of Objects and Reasons.-Acts of the Local Council provide in many of the larger provinces of British India for the registration of persons duly qualified to practise western medicine or surgery, and where such Acts have been passed, Medical Councils have been constituted with specific powers and duties.

It is now considered necessary to supplement this provincial legislation by an Imperial Act, restricting the right to issue degrees and diplomas in these systems of medicine and surgery to duly constituted authorities, so as to ensure that such degrees and diplomas are not issued to unqualified persons. It has been found that at present, diplomas are issued by private institutions to untrained or insufficiently trained persons, and that many of these diplomas are colourable imitations of those issued by recognised Universities and Corporations. The result is that recipients of such diplomas are able to pose to the public as possessing qualifications in medicine and surgery which they do not possess. The present Bill is intended to remove the public inconvenience and injury arising out of the present state of affairs. It prohibits all persons, save certain specified authorities, from issuing or alleging that they are entitled to issue any degree or diploma in western medicine or surgery. It also penalises persons who voluntarily and falsely assume any medical title which is granted either by the General Council of Medical Education of the United Kingdom, or by the authorities constituted under the Act, and further prohibits the use of any colourable imitations of such titles.

The Bill does not affect the right of any person to exercise the profession of medicine or to practise as a physician or surgeon, provided he does not pretend to possess qualifications which he has not got; and its operation is rigidly restricted to the western methods of Allopathic medicine and surgery, Homeopathic, Ayurvedic and Unani practitioners being excluded from the purview of the Bill.

[16th March, 1916]

An Act to regulate the grant of title implying qualifications in western medical science and the assumption and use by unqualified persons of such titles.

Whereas it is expedient to regulate the grant of titles implying qualifications in western medical science, and the assumption and use by unqualified persons of such titles; it is hereby enacted as follows:—