The Uttar Pradesh Ayurvedic Unani Tibbi Board has debarred 34 Ayurveda practitioners for one year after an inquiry revealed they were treating patients within the state while simultaneously being listed on the faculty rolls of medical colleges across India. The punitive measure leaves these doctors barred from both clinical practice and teaching assignments until November 2027. The regulatory action followed a nationwide verification exercise by the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine, which uncovered roughly 400 faculty members who were drawing affiliations on college registries but were physically missing from campus grounds. Among them, 34 individuals held their primary medical registrations in Uttar Pradesh, maintaining local practices while functioning as ghost educators elsewhere.
Faculty Records Contrast With Physical Presence
According to the inquiry findings, three of the debarred practitioners were shown on the rolls of Ayurvedic colleges in Haryana, while one doctor each was listed at institutions in Rajasthan, Bihar, and Himachal Pradesh. The remaining 28 doctors were found registered as faculty members at Ayurvedic colleges operating within various districts of Uttar Pradesh itself, even as they ran clinical practices elsewhere. Following the submission of the inspection findings by the national regulatory body, the state board suspended their licenses for 12 months and formally alerted regional Ayurvedic and Unani officers in their respective home jurisdictions to halt their clinical operations on the ground.
Specific Instances Highlight Registration Violations
Official documents highlighted notable instances of these dual affiliations across northern states. Dr Soumya Mehta, registered with the Uttar Pradesh board under registration number 52805, was listed as a faculty member at a private Ayurvedic medical college located in Rajasthan’s Jhunjhunu district. Dr Om Prakash, holding registration number 49827, was listed on the payroll of a private institution in Chhapra, Bihar. Dr Monika Agarwal, registered under number 51138, was shown on the academic registry of a private Ayurvedic medical college situated in Gurugram, Haryana.
Mandatory Interstate Licensure Norms Flouted
Under statutory norms, medical professionals treating patients in any state must secure valid registration with the relevant local council or board. Whenever a doctor registered in Uttar Pradesh takes up employment at an institution outside the home state, the practitioner is required to formally transfer registration to that jurisdiction. The national inquiry revealed that six doctors were actively recorded on the staff registers of medical colleges in neighbouring states without having completed this mandatory interstate transfer process. Confirming the regulatory clampdown, Dr Akhilesh Verma, Secretary of the Uttar Pradesh Ayurvedic Unani Tibbi Board, stated that the commission found numerous faculty members entirely absent from their workplaces during surprise inspections, leading the board to debar all 34 implicated doctors for one year.
