Duration

Section 4(2) states that “the Council may issue to the applicant a certificate to practise telemedicine for a period not exceeding three years subject to such terms and conditions as the Council may specify in such certificate”. The maximum duration of a telemedicine certificate is 3 years. Does the Council have a power to renew the certificate or is it a one-time certificate? If would not be particularly effective if the certificate is a one-time certificate since the entire intent of the legislature will be defeated. Nevertheless, the legislature may also have intended that the telemedicine practitioner make a fresh application for a certificate at the end of the 3-year period and not merely a renewal of the original certificate. The answer remains unknown since the Act is silent as to the right of the telemedicine practitioner to apply for a renewal must mean that on the expiry of the certificate the telemedicine practitioner would have to make a fresh application to the Council. But if the Council in exercising its statutory powers to impose conditions, provides for the renewal for the licence then such renewal would be proper and intra vires.