State Allied and Healthcare Council
Also called: State Council under NCAHP Act · Topic: Statutory, Regulatory and Quasi-judicial Bodies · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
A State Allied and Healthcare Council is the state-level body set up under the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions (NCAHP) Act, 2021. It keeps the State Register, the official state list of registered allied and healthcare workers such as lab technicians, physiotherapists and medical imaging staff. It also checks each applicant's certificates before they are registered. It is a statutory body, which means it is created by an Act of Parliament and not by the Constitution. It matters because the national system needs these councils to work. If a state has no council, no one there has the legal job of checking a worker's credentials.
Example
In the case Joint Forum of Medical Technologists of India v. Union of India, the Supreme Court recorded that only 14 of the 28 states had set up their State Councils. The Court was still hearing the case in July 2026. In states without a council, certificate checks for allied workers were held up. Those workers could not be registered, even though the Act had been passed in March 2021.
Don't confuse with
- National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions (NCAHP): the national regulator under the same Act. It sets standards for the whole country and keeps the Central Register. A State Council works inside one state and keeps that state's register.
- State Medical Council: this body registers doctors. Doctors are regulated under the National Medical Commission system, not under the NCAHP Act.