Govt retains 'body corporate' clause in Nimhans Bill

Cabinet decides health minister wont be institutes president

 The government took the decision to retain the controversial clause in the Bill after the Department of Legal Affairs clarified that it would not turn Nimhans into a profit-making institution.

The Centre, however, accepted the recommendation of the parliamentary panel that Nimhans should not have the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare as its president.

A meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh approved the amendments to the Bill, which was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on December 2010 last, in order to declare Nimhans as an institute of national importance.

The Bill was referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare, which in its report presented in the Rajya Sabha on March 4 last, raised objections on the proposed legislation’s clause 4 that sought to constitute Nimhans as a “body corporate”.

The committee had apprehensions about the likely adverse impact of the incorporation of Nimhans as “body corporate” as the institute might be registered under the Companies Act, thereby leading to profit-making activities. It was not convinced by the argument of the Union government’s Department of Health and Family Welfare that the particular clause in the Bill was similar to provisions incl­u­ded in legislations governing the institutions like All India Institute of Medical Scie-nces in Delhi and Post Gradua­te Institute of Medical Educat­ion and Research in Ch­andigarh.

The parliamentary panel in its report asked the government to remove doubts arising out of clause 4 of the Bill about the nature of the Nimhans—a non-profit or a not-for-profit institution or a profit-making institution. It opined that conferring the status of institution of national importance on the Nimhans should not result in deviation from its originally envisaged objectives and purposes, which were of “public charitable nature”.

Briefing the media after the Cabinet meet on Thursday, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said the government had decided to retain the clause 4 of the Bill unchanged, taking into account the advice of the Department of Legal Affairs, which clarified that the term “body corporate” in no way reflects the government’s intention to make the Nimhans a corporate body. Clause 26 of the Bill makes it mandatory for the institute to go by the dire­c­tives of the Central governm­e­nt.

The parliamentary panel also sought changes in clause 5 of the Bill, which provided for appointment of the Union Health Minister as the president of the Nimhans.