Mumbai, August 13, 2026: The Maharashtra government has questioned the Indian Medical Association’s (IMA) locus standi (right of a person to file a case or appear before a court) to challenge the provisions allowing homoeopathy practitioners who complete the Certificate Course in Modern Pharmacology (CCMP) to practise modern medicine in the state.

A bench of Justices Riyaz Chagla and Farhan Dubash was hearing a plea by the Indian Medical Association challenging the 2014 amendments to the Maharashtra Medical Council Act (MMCA) and the Maharashtra Medical Practitioners Act, which introduced the CCMP, allowing homoeopaths trained under it to practise allopathy.

State Questions IMA’s Standing

During the hearing before the Bombay High Court, Advocate General Milind Sathe argued that the IMA is only a voluntary association of doctors and has failed to show how it has suffered any legal injury because of the amendments. The state said the association cannot challenge the constitutional validity of a law merely on the ground that it disagrees with its provisions.

“IMA is a voluntary association of doctors. How are they aggrieved by this Act?” Sathe submitted.

He further argued that the association must demonstrate its “locus standi and legal injury” before asking the court to examine the validity of the legislation.

The state also pointed out that the challenge was not based on any alleged violation of the doctors’ fundamental right to practise their profession.

“Is it the case that their practice is being affected?” it asked, adding that there was no challenge based on Article 19(1)(g), which protects the right to practise a profession. Instead, the IMA had primarily questioned the legislative competence of the state to make the amendments.

The government maintained that the court should not decide the validity of a law “in vacuum” when the petitioner itself has not shown how it is affected by the legislation.

Debate Over Registration Regime

The IMA has challenged the legal framework permitting such practitioners to practise allopathy. The state, however, contended that the Maharashtra law creates a separate state-level registration regime and that the provisions have existed as part of the state legislation since 1965.

The court also examined the distinction between the central and state medical registers. The state argued that the Indian Medical Council Act regulates recognised qualifications for modern medicine at the central level, while registration to practise in Maharashtra is governed by the state law.

The state further pointed out that the Indian Medical Council, which was the statutory body under the earlier central law, has since been replaced by the National Medical Commission. It stressed that neither the statutory medical regulator nor the NMC was the petitioner in the present challenge.

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