Karnataka HC Sets Aside DHO’s Rejection Of Traditional Ayurveda Practitioner’s Clinic Registration Bid, Directs District Authority To Decide In 8 Weeks

The petitioner, who operated an Ayurveda clinic, applied under Section 5 of the Karnataka Private Medical Establishments Act, 2007 (“KPME Act”) to register his establishment.

The District Health and Family Welfare Officer (DHO), respondent No. 3, issued an endorsement dated 4 July 2025 declining to accept the application, stating that no guidelines existed for doing so.

The petitioner challenged the endorsement, contending that the application had to be dealt with by the district Registration Authority constituted under Section 4, rather than rejected by the DHO acting alone.

Section 3 of the KPME Act prohibits the establishment, operation or maintenance of a private medical establishment except in accordance with registration under the Act.

Under Section 5, an application for registration must be made to the concerned Registration Authority.

Section 4 constitutes that Authority in each district, with the Deputy Commissioner as Chairperson and the DHO as Member-Secretary.

Section 7 assigns the Authority the task of deciding an application, after the prescribed consideration and any necessary enquiry, and requires an opportunity of hearing and recorded reasons before rejection.

Applying the principle in Babu Verghese v. Bar Council of Kerala, (1999) 3 SCC 422, where a statute prescribes the manner of performing an act, it must be performed in that manner or not at all.

Section 7 placed the decision on the registration application with the Registration Authority, not with the DHO acting independently. Although the DHO was a member and Member-Secretary of that Authority, the application had been rejected by the DHO alone, rather than being disposed of by the Authority in accordance with the statutory procedure.

Applying the rule in Babu Verghese, the Court held that the prescribed decision-making process could not be bypassed. It therefore found the endorsement unsustainable, without determining the application’s substantive eligibility for registration.

It directed that the petitioner’s application be considered and disposed of by the Registration Authority under Section 7 of the KPME Act within eight weeks.