medicalmajoracts.com is a digital repository of the important central statutes (bare Acts) which are directly applicable to the healthcare delivery services in India. It is continuously updated with the current laws and amendments. This ready reckoner is relevant and useful to doctors and other allied healthcare professionals including hospital administrators, managerial and legal teams of hospitals, institutions, and healthcare facilities
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Only those Acts, Rules, and Regulations that are relevant and directly applicable for providing healthcare services have been included. Statutory laws for educational (medical) institutions, their establishments, fees, admissions, standards, and curriculum as well as the ones on appointments, elections, removal, and service conditions of statutory authorities under the various Acts have been consciously avoided. For e.g. The Mental Healthcare (Central Mental Health Authority and Mental Health Review Boards) Rules, 2018 and The Mental Healthcare (State Mental Health Authority) Rules, 2018 have not been included as they lay down the framework for appointment of the State and Central Authorities, and the Review Boards which is of little relevance to the healthcare provider while delivering healthcare services. But The Mental Healthcare (Rights of Persons with Mental Illness) Rules, 2018 has been included as it deals with the rights of persons with mental illness and the statutory protections accorded to them. This information must obviously be available to every person and/or organization involved in the delivery of healthcare services.
The Need
The development of any nation has generally been associated with two phenomena – growth in the legal and regulatory framework and increasing focus on healthcare. As India transforms to a developed economy, the role of law in healthcare is increasing by the day and is bound to further increase in future.
Today, the legal framework in healthcare is expanding to regulate newer areas. Healthcare providers now are compelled to refer to the statutory provisions even for routine day-to-day activities. The need to remain aware, updated and compliant with the increasing number of laws relating to healthcare is therefore more pressing amongst the professionals working in and/or associated with this domain. Unfortunately, there is no single source where statutory laws can be easily accessed.
medicalmajoracts.com intends to address this need.
What is a Statute?
Doctors and hospital administrators are not legal professionals. A few elementary terms and some basic information on how to understand and interpret the statutes are therefore discussed hereinbelow in an easy-to-understand way:
- Statutory law means the written law. It is the most important source of law. Judgments delivered by the higher courts (case laws), customs, practices, etc. are the other source of laws
- Statutory laws include Acts, Rules, Regulations, Guidelines, etc. These are made by statutory bodies having the requisite authority to make law
- ‘Acts’ are made by the legislatures. In India, the Parliament, as well as the State legislatures (Vidhan Sabha / Vidhan Parishad), are empowered to make Acts
- An Act may have a number of Rules / Regulations / Guidelines under them. These are made and notified by the statutory authorities (including legislature) empowered to do so under the parent ‘Act.’ Even the issues on which Rules / Regulations / Guidelines can be made are specified in the parent ‘Act.’
- Acts / Rules / Regulations:
- Usually have a section wherein the event or the date on which that statute will come into force is clearly stated
- May have several Chapters, Parts, Schedules as well as Forms and these could be further divided into sections, sub-sections, sub-sub-sections, and so on.
- Can be amended or repealed by another amending / repealing statute. The day on which the original statute or a particular provision of a statute will cease, or a particular amendment will come into force is clearly stated in the amending / repealing statute.