Five registrations cancelled after a Bihar council report, new hiring rules for private hospitals: West Bengal's fake-doctor registration row of September 2026

In India a doctor's licence is a number on a state medical council register, and a registration granted in one state can be used to obtain one in another. That makes the register only as strong as the checks between councils. In September 2026 West Bengal discovered how weak those checks had been when a report from the Bihar Council of Medical Registration raised questions about the credentials behind five West Bengal registrations.

According to News On AIR on 16 September, the West Bengal Medical Council cancelled the registrations of five doctors accused of using fake documents from Bihar. The trigger was a complaint by Rajib Pandey, secretary of the Association of Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes, and the state Health Department opened a probe to find others with fraudulent credentials. Pandey also complained to the Bidhannagar Police Commissioner against senior council officials, alleging that fake registrations had grown over several years without effective action. Millennium Post reported on 26 September that the council had removed five names from its register of registered practitioners, Sk Unush Hasan, Uttam Maity, Hafijur Halder, Julfikar Mandal and Sk Sayedul Haque, after the Bihar council's report raised questions over their registration credentials. The council's notice described them as fraudulent persons and gave each one's registration details in both West Bengal and Bihar, and an official said patients should not be fooled by them.

The state's response followed within days. Millennium Post on 3 October and Medical Dialogues on 5 October reported a Health Department notification directing every private health establishment to verify a doctor's documents, including the registration number, before hiring, under Rule 7(4) of the West Bengal Clinical Establishment (Registration, Regulation and Transparency) Rules, 2017. Any doubt about identity, qualifications or registration must be reported to the authorities at once and the council asked to check the doctor's eligibility. A department officer, quoted through IANS in Medical Dialogues, said that 'often, many individuals claiming to be doctors practice without valid registration numbers or approval for practising'. Medical Dialogues added that anyone offering medical services on a fake identity or without registration would face legal action, and that the West Bengal Doctors' Forum welcomed the guidelines.

The mechanism was registration on the strength of another state's paperwork. The five entries carried Bihar registration details alongside West Bengal ones, and it was the Bihar council's report that led to their removal. Both reports say the hospitals' association had flagged private facilities employing people without valid registrations and individuals offering services from private chambers, which is why the state now requires a register check before any appointment.

For patients and for students weighing a hospital job or an attachment, the lesson is to use the register, not the frame on the wall. Search the doctor's name and number on the state council's public list, and where a registration cites another state, expect the second council to show it too. A registration that cannot be found online is a reason to stop, not a formality.