The Chief Information Commission has directed the National Medical Commission (NMC) to upload the assessment reports of all medical colleges on its website regularly. This directive considers the exemptions given to personal information under the Right to Information Act. The commission ordered the NMC to comply within 30 days from the receipt of the order.

Dr. Mohammed Khader Meeran, a doctor from Trichy and RTI activist, filed the appeal. He had sought attested copies of the infrastructure assessment reports of all medical colleges. The NMC resisted making any reports public, claiming exemption due to the personal information included in the faculty and staff declarations.

In July 2023, following an earlier advisory from the CIC to make the assessment reports public, the NMC responded to Dr. Meeran. They stated that, according to the Establishment of Medical Institutions, Assessment and Rating Regulations, 2023, "the Medical Assessment and Rating Board shall make available on its website or otherwise in the public domain the annual assessment results and ratings of medical colleges or medical institutions." They claimed compliance with the March 2023 CIC order but did not make the necessary documents public.

Instead, during a meeting held on May 1, 2024, the NMC decided that self-assessment forms (SAF) of medical colleges "need not be in the public domain." However, the CIC ruled that the NMC could not make this decision since proactive disclosure is mandatory under the RTI Act.

“The Commission hereby reiterates its earlier advisory issued to the NMC to ensure that information about the assessment reports of all the medical colleges should be regularly uploaded on their website after taking into consideration the exemptions under sections 8(1) and 9 of the RTI Act, in compliance with the provisions of Section 4 of the RTI Act to boost transparency and in the larger public interest concerning the quality of medical education in the country,” stated the Commission’s order of July 15, 2024.

The Commission notes that medical college assessment reports are important because they reveal the inspection date and provide details about the infrastructure of the concerned medical college/institution, including the number of beds in each department and bed occupancy rate, number of in-patients, outpatients, and also department-wise total number of faculty in the concerned teaching hospital and the college,” stated the CIC order.

The commission observed that disclosing these assessment reports is essential for aspiring medical students seeking admission into medical courses, as it allows them to make informed decisions while choosing a college during the counseling process. The NMC stopped uploading college assessment reports when it took over from the erstwhile Medical Council of India. It also took down all the assessment reports that the MCI had already uploaded, which pertained to 550 medical colleges approved till 2021.