Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) has summoned 23 doctors from Mumbai for practising with fake degrees. According to the MMC, some of these doctors have been putting up misleading boards outside their clinics to attract patients. The medical council had earlier issued these 23 doctors warnings, but still they were found using their fake degrees.

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Recently, the MMC had warned against use of illegal degrees and said that stringent action would be taken against the offenders. This was done after it came to light that two doctors were having degrees, obtained through long-distance courses from abroad, which portrayed them as "Master", a nomenclature not recognised by the Medical Council of India (MCI).

The MMC is a statutory body with powers to suspend a doctor's licence if s/he is found guilty of malpractice. Only those doctors registered with the MMC can practise in Maharashtra. Over 70,000 doctors are registered with the MMC.

Around 30 people, including some doctors, had sent a complaint about such practice to the MMC sometime back. Following this, the MMC sent notices to 600 doctors across Maharashtra and issued warnings. Most of the doctors followed the MMC's instructions and removed their illegal degrees from their boards. However, these 23 doctors chose to ignore the MMC warnings.

MMC president Dr Kishor Taori confirmed receipt of the complaint. "After we received the complaint, we issued them warnings and asked why strict action should not be taken against them. We also asked them to immediately drop their degree prefix from their names. They cannot use such degrees as they are not recognised."

Dr Taori added that some doctors get their MBBS degrees from state medical colleges, but when they don't get admission in an MCI-recognised institute for further studies, they resort to devious practices.