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What Is the Status of the NMC Registered Medical Practitioner (Professional Conduct) Regulations 2023?

By Best Worst Insurance Editorial TeamUpdated 25 July 2026

Status as at 25 July 2026: the National Medical Commission's Registered Medical Practitioner (Professional Conduct) Regulations 2023 remain in abeyance. They were notified on 2 August 2023 and suspended by an amendment notification twenty-one days later, on 23 August 2023 — and when we read the NMC's own rules-and-regulations index on 25 July 2026, the abeyance amendment was still listed directly beneath them, with no replacement professional-conduct regulation anywhere on the page [1,2]. Nearly three years of suspension. What governs Indian medical ethics in the meantime is the Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations 2002 [1,3]. For indemnity insurance the consequence is simple and stable: no Indian law or regulation makes professional indemnity compulsory for an individual doctor [4,3] — the 2023 regulations did not mandate it even when they were briefly in force, and the postgraduate education regulations do not mention insurance at all [5].

What governs Indian medical practice right now

Verified against the NMC's own published index on 25 July 2026. The abeyance row is the one that can move; we re-check it on every refresh.

InstrumentStatus as at 25 July 2026What it says about indemnity insurance
NMC Registered Medical Practitioner (Professional Conduct) Regulations 2023, notified 02.08.2023IN ABEYANCE since 23.08.2023, and still listed as such on the NMC's own index [1,2]Did not mandate professional indemnity insurance even when in force [4,3]
NMC amendment notification dated 23.08.2023In force — this is the instrument that suspended the above [1,2]Not applicable
Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations 2002Operative — the working ethics code for Indian doctors [1,3]Silent on indemnity insurance
NMC Post Graduate Medical Education Regulations 2023In forceZero occurrences of indemnit or insuran across all twenty pages [5]
Consumer Protection Act 2019, as applied by V.P. ShanthaIn force — doctors remain suable in consumer fora [8][9]Creates the liability the insurance responds to, but does not require the insurance
Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023, section 106(1)In force since 1 July 2024 [10]Creates criminal exposure no indemnity policy covers [11,12,13,14,15,16]
TPA and network-provider agreementsIn force, contract by contractRequire the provider to hold and maintain professional indemnity for the term [6] — the real source of compulsion

1. Status, in one line

As at 25 July 2026: the NMC Registered Medical Practitioner (Professional Conduct) Regulations 2023 remain in abeyance, and the 2002 MCI ethics code remains operative.

We say that from the regulator's own page rather than from press coverage. The National Medical Commission's rules-and-regulations index, under the Ethics and Medical Registration Board, lists item 1 as the Professional Conduct Regulations 2023 dated 02.08.2023 and item 1.1 as the amendment regulation dated 23.08.2023 "Keeping Regulation Dated 02.08.2023 in Abeyance" — and nothing else. There is no third item, no replacement, no re-notification [1,2].

Twenty-one days in force. Nearly three years suspended.

2. What governs Indian medical practice in the meantime

The gap the abeyance leaves widest: postgraduate trainees carry real clinical responsibility under regulations that never mention insurance.

What PGMER-2023 requiresWhat it says about cover
All postgraduate students work as full-time resident doctors [5]Nothing
Every MD/MS student in a broad specialty completes a compulsory three-month District Residency rotation in the 3rd, 4th or 5th semester [5]Nothing
District Residents serve in outpatient, inpatient and casualty areas, including night duties [5]Nothing
Colleges place students at the disposal of the State or UT government, and District Residents come under the State DRP Nodal Officer while drawing stipend from the parent college [5]Nothing — and the split between employer, host and regulator is exactly where indemnity questions arise
Text search of all twenty pages for indemnit and insuranZero occurrences of either [5]
Meanwhile, in the policy wordingsA resident is covered under a principal's policy only if named in the schedule at seven of eleven carriers [11,17]

The 2002 Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations remain the operative code [1,3]. That is a document drafted seven years after V.P. Shantha brought doctors under the Consumer Protection Act [8] but seven years before the Supreme Court's first crore-level medical-negligence award [18], and more than a decade before the ₹6.08 crore award that still anchors the top of the Indian range [19]. The ethics framework governing Indian doctors was written for a compensation environment that no longer exists.

3. The consequence for indemnity insurance, which is smaller than doctors expect

Here is the fact that gets misreported constantly, in both directions: the 2023 regulations never mandated professional indemnity insurance. Doctors sometimes believe the abeyance rescued them from a mandate, and sometimes believe a mandate is now in force. Neither is true. No Indian law or regulation makes professional indemnity compulsory for an individual doctor, and the 2023 conduct regulations did not change that even during the three weeks they were live [4,3].

The postgraduate regulations are equally silent, and more conspicuously so. We text-searched all twenty pages of the NMC Post Graduate Medical Education Regulations 2023 for "indemnit" and "insuran" and found zero occurrences of either [5]. Those same regulations provide that all postgraduate students work as full-time resident doctors [5], require every MD/MS student in a broad specialty to complete a compulsory three-month District Residency rotation [5] whose clinical responsibilities expressly include outpatient, inpatient and casualty work and encompass night duties [5], and place students at the disposal of the State government while they draw their stipend from the parent college [5].

So the regulator sends trainees into casualty at night, under a split employer-host-regulator arrangement, without addressing insurance at all — while seven of the eleven carriers' wordings cover a resident under a principal's policy only if that resident is named in the schedule [11,17]. That gap is the real regulatory story here, and it is examined in residents and PG students.

4. What actually makes cover compulsory

Statute does not, and contract does. TPA and network-provider agreements routinely require the provider to hold and maintain professional indemnity cover for the term of the agreement [6]. Corporate hospital empanelment generally demands an insurance certificate, which IMA Professional Protection Scheme membership is not — the schemes are mutual member-contribution pools rather than IRDAI-regulated insurance [20,21]. And doctors report plainly that cover is effectively compulsory to work at large hospitals [7].

This distinction matters practically, not just pedantically. A statutory mandate would apply uniformly and would probably specify a minimum sum insured. A contractual one applies unevenly, is negotiated by the party with the most leverage, and specifies whatever that party wants — which is why residents report being routed by hospital HR to affiliated agents quoting particular products [22,23]. The absence of a regulatory floor is what leaves that space open.

5. What we watch, and what would change here

Three things would move this page.

A re-notification or replacement of the 2023 regulations. Nothing has appeared on the NMC index as at 25 July 2026 [1,2]. If a replacement arrives, the first question we will answer is whether it says anything about indemnity — the 2023 version did not.

Any regulation touching postgraduate indemnity. Given the District Residency structure [5] and the naming requirement in the policy wordings [11,17], this is the most obvious gap a regulator could close cheaply.

A change in the underlying liability regime. Doctors' suability under the Consumer Protection Act has been contested since May 2024 and a petition is pending [24]; we track that separately at the V.P. Shantha status page. Criminal exposure under BNS section 106(1) has been in force since 1 July 2024 [10] and no policy covers it [11,12,13,14,15,16].

Until any of that happens, the position is what it has been since 23 August 2023: a suspended conduct code, a 2002 ethics framework, no insurance mandate, and a market in which what compels you to buy cover is the contract in front of you rather than the law behind it. Whether you should buy it anyway is a separate question, answered in is indemnity insurance mandatory and how much cover you need.

Frequently asked questions

Are the NMC Registered Medical Practitioner (Professional Conduct) Regulations 2023 in force?
No. They were notified on 2 August 2023 and put in abeyance by an amendment notification dated 23 August 2023, and they were still shown in abeyance on the NMC's own rules index when we checked it on 25 July 2026 [1,2]. Nearly three years on, no replacement professional-conduct regulation has been notified.
Which ethics code applies to Indian doctors right now?
The Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations 2002 [1,3]. With the 2023 regulations suspended, the 2002 code remains the operative framework — a code drafted before the Supreme Court's crore-level compensation era began in 2009 [18], and silent on indemnity insurance.
Does the NMC require doctors to have indemnity insurance?
No. No Indian law or regulation mandates professional indemnity insurance for an individual doctor [4,3]. The 2023 conduct regulations did not require it even while they were briefly in force, and they have been in abeyance since August 2023 anyway [1,2]. What makes cover compulsory in practice is contractual — provider agreements require it [6]. See is indemnity insurance mandatory.
Why were the 2023 regulations put in abeyance?
They drew immediate and widespread objection from the profession — the generic-prescribing mandate and the restrictions on endorsements were the flashpoints — and the NMC suspended them within three weeks of notification, on 23 August 2023, pending further consultation [1,2]. What was intended as a pause has now lasted nearly three years.
Do PG residents need indemnity insurance under NMC rules?
NMC rules say nothing about it. We text-searched all twenty pages of the Post Graduate Medical Education Regulations 2023 for "indemnit" and "insuran" and found zero occurrences of either [5] — while the same regulations make every postgraduate a full-time resident doctor [5] and send them on a three-month District Residency including casualty and night duties [5][5]. The regulatory silence is the finding. See residents and PG students.
Will the NMC make indemnity insurance mandatory?
Nothing published suggests it is being considered. The 2023 regulations did not propose it, no draft replacing them has been notified as at 25 July 2026 [1,2], and the postgraduate regulations are silent [5]. We maintain this page precisely so that the answer here is dated rather than assumed.
If it is not mandatory, why does my hospital insist on it?
Because the obligation is contractual rather than statutory. TPA and network-provider agreements require the provider to hold and maintain professional indemnity cover for the term of the agreement [6], hospital empanelment commonly demands an insurance certificate — which IMA scheme membership is not — and doctors report that cover is effectively compulsory to work at large hospitals [7].
How current is this page?
We verified the status against the National Medical Commission's own rules-and-regulations index on 25 July 2026 and record that date at the top of the page [1,2]. Because this is a maintained tracker rather than a one-time article, treat any undated copy of this analysis elsewhere as stale.

Sources

Every figure on this page is footnoted to one of the primary documents below. Reliability tiers: A = regulator, court or filed document; B = reputable publisher or carrier official page; C = user-generated (reported by users).

  1. 1.National Medical Commission — Rules and Regulations, NMC — Ethics and Medical Registration Board listing. https://www.nmc.org.in/rules-regulations-nmc/Tier A · Regulator / court / filed document · Published 2023-08-23 · Accessed 2026-07-25
  2. 2.National Medical Commission — National Medical Commission Registered Medical Practitioner (Professional Conduct) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 — notification keeping the 02.08.2023 Regulations in abeyance. https://www.nmc.org.in/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/NationalMedicalCommissionRegisteredMedicalPractionerProfessionalonduct.pdfTier A · Regulator / court / filed document · Published 2023-08-23 · Accessed 2026-07-25
  3. 3.Drishti IAS — NMC RMP (Professional Conduct) Regulations 2023 held in abeyance. https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/nmc-registered-medical-practitioner-professional-conduct-regulations-2023Tier B · Reputable publisher / carrier official · Published 2023-08-23 · Accessed 2026-07-17
  4. 4.National Medical Commission — NMC Registered Medical Practitioner (Professional Conduct) Regulations 2023. https://www.nmc.org.in/rules-regulations/national-medical-commission-registered-medical-practitioner-professional-conduct-regulations-2023-reg/Tier A · Regulator / court / filed document · Published 2023-08-02 · Accessed 2026-07-17
  5. 5.National Medical Commission — Post Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023. https://www.nmc.org.in/MCIRest/open/getDocument?path=%2FDocuments%2FPublic%2FPortal%2FLatestNews%2FMER.pdfTier A · Regulator / court / filed document · Published 2023-01-01 · Accessed 2026-07-25
  6. 6.MDIndia Health Insurance TPA — MDIndia TPA provider Memorandum of Understanding. https://mdindiaonline.com/pdfdownloads/MOU.pdfTier B · Reputable publisher / carrier official · Published 2024-01-01 · Accessed 2026-07-17
  7. 7.r/indianmedschool — Indemnity insurance — online vs offline? (thread). https://www.reddit.com/r/indianmedschool/comments/1sl1c6y/indemnity_insurance_online_vs_offline/Tier C · User-generated (reported by users) · Published 2026-04-14 · Accessed 2026-07-17
  8. 8.Supreme Court of India (via IndianKanoon) — Indian Medical Association v. V.P. Shantha (SC, 1995). https://indiankanoon.org/doc/723973/Tier A · Regulator / court / filed document · Published 1995-11-13 · Accessed 2026-07-17
  9. 9.Supreme Court of India (via IndianKanoon) — Bar of Indian Lawyers v. D.K. Gandhi — order on the reference (SC, 7 November 2024), Civil Appeals 2646-2649 of 2009. https://indiankanoon.org/doc/140245685/Tier A · Regulator / court / filed document · Published 2024-11-07 · Accessed 2026-07-25
  10. 10.India Code (Government of India) — The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023. https://www.indiacode.nic.in/handle/123456789/21420Tier A · Regulator / court / filed document · Published 2023-12-25 · Accessed 2026-07-25
  11. 11.New India Assurance Co. — Professional Indemnity Policy for Doctors and Medical Practitioners — policy wording. https://www.iosweb.net/m-documents/DRINDEMCLAUSE.pdfTier A · Regulator / court / filed document · Accessed 2026-07-08
  12. 12.National Insurance Co. (NICL) — Professional Indemnity (for Doctors & Medical Practitioners) — full wording + specimen schedule. https://nationalinsurance.nic.co.in/sites/default/files/2026-04/Prof.Indmn%20Doctor%20Medical%20estb%20prospectus.pdfTier A · Regulator / court / filed document · Accessed 2026-07-08
  13. 13.ICICI Lombard (hosted by IRDAI) — Professional Indemnity Policy (For Doctors & Medical Practitioners) — policy wording. https://irdai.gov.in/documents/37343/993134/6_Policy+Wordings+Doctors+and+Medical+Practitioners_Misc+21_GEN073.pdf/dcdecdb3-f154-806d-88d7-1ebffee7eb61?version=1.1&t=1668243606849&download=trueTier A · Regulator / court / filed document · Accessed 2026-07-08
  14. 14.IFFCO Tokio General Insurance — Professional Indemnity Policy — wording for Doctors, Medical Practitioners and Medical Establishments. https://www.iffcotokio.co.in/content/dam/iffcotokio/policy-wordings/motor/professional-indemnity-policy-wording-doctors.pdfTier A · Regulator / court / filed document · Accessed 2026-07-08
  15. 15.IndusInd General Insurance (ex Reliance General) — IndusInd Professional Indemnity Policy for Doctors and Medical Practitioners — policy wording. https://www.indusindinsurance.com/Downloads/professional-indemnity-policy-for-doctors-and-medical-practictioners.pdfTier A · Regulator / court / filed document · Accessed 2026-07-08
  16. 16.Bajaj General Insurance (ex Bajaj Allianz) — Professional Indemnity Insurance Policy — policy wording (generic, retail UIN). https://www.bajajgeneralinsurance.com/download-documents/commercial-insurance/professional-indemnity-insurance-policy/Professional-Indemnity.pdfTier A · Regulator / court / filed document · Accessed 2026-07-08
  17. 17.United India Insurance Co. — Professional Indemnity Insurance Policy — Customer Information Sheet. https://uiic.co.in/web/sites/default/files/Policy-Document/Professional%20Indemnity%20Insurance%20Policy%20CIS.pdfTier A · Regulator / court / filed document · Published 2024-10-01 · Accessed 2026-07-08
  18. 18.Supreme Court of India (via IndianKanoon) — Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences v. Prasanth S. Dhananka (SC, 2009). https://indiankanoon.org/doc/1110505/Tier A · Regulator / court / filed document · Accessed 2026-07-17
  19. 19.Supreme Court of India (via IndianKanoon) — Balram Prasad v. Kunal Saha (SC, 2013) — AMRI / Anuradha Saha. https://indiankanoon.org/doc/35346928/Tier A · Regulator / court / filed document · Published 2013-10-24 · Accessed 2026-07-17
  20. 20.Indian Journal of Ophthalmology (via PMC) — IJO editorial on medico-legal protection and the IMA/AIOS Professional Protection Scheme (Jan 2020). https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6951135/Tier A · Regulator / court / filed document · Published 2020-01-01 · Accessed 2026-07-17
  21. 21.Indian Medical Association (national) — IMA National Professional Protection Scheme (NPPS) — brochure. https://www.ima-india.org/branch/cms/images/8746_NPPS.pdfTier B · Reputable publisher / carrier official · Accessed 2026-07-08
  22. 22.r/indianmedschool — Does a DNB/MD doctor require a medical negligence insurance policy?. https://www.reddit.com/r/indianmedschool/comments/170f12w/does_dnbmd_doctor_require_medical_negligence/Tier C · User-generated (reported by users) · Published 2023-10-05 · Accessed 2026-07-17
  23. 23.r/indianmedschool — Do you need indemnity insurance before starting your residency?. https://www.reddit.com/r/indianmedschool/comments/1nv27pc/do_you_need_an_indemnity_insurance_before/Tier C · User-generated (reported by users) · Published 2025-10-01 · Accessed 2026-07-17
  24. 24.ThePrint — Doctors seek parity with lawyers: SC seeks responses over PIL seeking Consumer Protection Act exemption. https://theprint.in/judiciary/doctors-seek-parity-with-lawyers-sc-seeks-responses-over-pil-seeking-consumer-protection-act-exemption/2851393/Tier B · Reputable publisher / carrier official · Published 2026-02-10 · Accessed 2026-07-25