Incidental right to prescribe medicines and issue certificates follows a valid right to treat specified diseases.

A statutory right to treat specified ailments under the 1980 notification also carried the incidental right to prescribe medicines and issue sickness or death certificates. The text states that the earlier view requiring a recognised medical qualification for State Medical Register entry could not stand where the governing scheme permits registration on the basis of other valid qualifications for the limited purpose authorised by State law. Because the right to prescribe medicine is a concomitant of the right to practise the permitted system of medicine, the appellants were entitled to registration in the State Medical Register only to exercise those incidental functions.

---

---

Issues: Whether the appellants, who were validly entitled to treat specified ailments under the 1980 notification, could also claim the incidental right to prescribe medicines and issue sickness or death certificates; and whether their names could be included in the State Medical Register for that limited purpose.

Analysis: The right conferred by the 1980 notification to treat common diseases in rural areas was not disputed. The earlier view denying registration by relying on the requirement of a recognised medical qualification could not stand in light of the governing principle that State law may permit registration in a State Medical Register on the basis of qualifications other than a recognised medical qualification, even though such qualification is necessary for the Indian Medical Register. The ability to prescribe a drug is a concomitant aspect of the right to practise a system of medicine. Since the appellants were lawfully entitled to treat, the power to prescribe medicine and issue necessary certificates flowed from that right and could not be severed from it.

Conclusion: The appellants were entitled to have their names included in the State Medical Register for the limited purpose of exercising the right to prescribe medicines and issue certificates incidental to their right to treat.

Final Conclusion: The denial of the consequential incidents of the right to treat was set aside and the relief granted by the learned Single Judge was restored.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a statutory or regulatory scheme validly confers a right to treat specified diseases, the incidental right to prescribe medicines and issue necessary certificates forms part of that entitlement and cannot be denied as an inseparable consequence of the treatment right.

---