How medical registration works in India

Two registers, kept in step

The National Medical Commission Act, 2019 requires the Commission’s Ethics and Medical Registration Board (EMRB) to maintain a National Register containing the name, address and all recognised qualifications of every licensed medical practitioner (section 31(1)). The National Register is a public document, and must be placed on the Board’s website (sections 31(4) and 31(5)).

Every State Medical Council maintains its own State Register in electronic form (section 31(6)). The Board must keep the two electronically synchronised, so that a change in one is automatically reflected in the other (section 31(7)). The Act defines a State Medical Council as a medical council set up under the law of a state or union territory (section 2(u)).

Where a state has no council, the state government was to take the necessary steps to establish one within three years of the Act coming into force. Until a council is established, the Board receives complaints and grievances about professional or ethical misconduct by practitioners in that state (section 30).

Who may practise

Only a person enrolled in a State Register or the National Register may (section 34):

• practise medicine as a qualified medical practitioner
• hold office as a physician or surgeon
• sign or authenticate a medical or fitness certificate required by law
• give evidence as a medical expert in a court or at an inquest

Contravening this is punishable with imprisonment of up to one year, a fine of up to five lakh rupees, or both (section 34(2)).

Under the Act, a person who qualifies the National Exit Test (NExT) is granted a licence and enrolled in a register (section 33(1)). A doctor registered in the Indian Medical Register kept under the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 before the new Act came into force, and before NExT becomes operational, is deemed to be registered under the new Act and enrolled in the National Register (proviso to section 33(1)).

Where the 2023 Registration Regulations stand

The Commission notified the Registration of Medical Practitioners and Licence to Practice Medicine Regulations, 2023 on 10 May 2023; they were published in the Gazette on 12 May 2023. They set out a National Medical Register with a Unique Identification (UID) number for every practitioner, a licence valid for five years, and transfers between states through a single web portal.

Two features of the text matter for how far that system is running:

• Registration in the National Medical Register is tied to qualifying the National Exit Test (Regulation 4(i)).
• Regulation 4 closes with: “Until such time that these Regulations and appropriate sections are in force, licence to practice and prevailing system of Registration shall continue.”

The National Medical Register portal was inaugurated on 23 August 2024, according to the Board’s public notice, which also asked doctors already on the Indian Medical Register to register again on it. No document recorded on this site states that the 2023 system is now fully in force. How each process currently runs in a given state is recorded on that state council’s page.

Changes proposed in 2026

On 11 August 2026 the Commission published draft amendments to the 2023 Regulations in the Gazette and invited objections within 30 days. An earlier draft, published on 7 April 2026, was withdrawn by the same notification. The main proposals:

• Once a State Medical Council grants registration and the Board allots a UID in the National Medical Register, the practitioner could practise in any state or union territory without fresh registration there (proposed Regulation 6(f)).
• The existing transfer procedure, Regulation 9, would be deleted. A new Regulation 9A would give jurisdiction over misconduct and negligence complaints to the council of the state where the cause of action arose.
• The National Medical Register would also show whether a licence is active or inactive, and any disciplinary action (proposed Regulation 5).

Draft regulations have no effect until the Commission publishes final regulations in the Gazette. Each process page sets out what the draft would change for that process.

Which code of conduct applies

The Commission notified the Registered Medical Practitioner (Professional Conduct) Regulations, 2023 on 2 August 2023. On 23 August 2023 it held those Regulations in abeyance, stated that they “shall not be operative and effective till further Gazette Notification”, and adopted the Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002 with immediate effect.

Three of the 2002 provisions bear directly on registration:

• Only a doctor with a recognised qualification who is registered with a council may practise modern medicine (Regulation 1.1.3).
• A physician must display the registration number given by the council in the clinic and on all prescriptions, certificates and money receipts (Regulation 1.4.1).
• Only recognised medical degrees, or certificates, diplomas, memberships and honours of the kind the regulation describes, may be shown as a suffix to a name (Regulation 1.4.2).

The processes

• Permanent registration and the NMR ID
• Renewal of registration and CME
• Registering an additional qualification
• Practising in another state
• Certificate of good standing