National Medical Commission (NMC) decided in September last year that not only doctors, but patients too can appeal to the Ethics and Medical Registration Board (EMRB) On February 21 the EMRB rejected the appeal of a patient from Punjab. This is despite the patients’ right to appeal being upheld by a Supreme Court order in 2002. “NMC appears to be in shambles. It looks like Aneja’s appeal was rejected by some functionary in the E MRB division who just copied an earlier letter,” said Dr KV Babu, ophthalmologist and RTI activist who has been fighting since 2022 to get the right of patients to appeal restored. The minutes of the 16th meeting of NMC held on Sept 29 last year, obtained through RTI in Jan stated: ‘NMC had agreed that all appeals received by EMRF will be entertained’ The minutes were approved by Dec. Further, as regards action not being taken by state medical councils on complaints filed by non-medicos even after issuance of reminders by the boards, it was decided to send a communication by E MRF to state medical council to complete the process in a time bound manner. In case of failure by the concerned SMC to act upon, EMRR may take over the complaint matter from SMC and dispose the same, according to the minutes.