It is only May of 2016, but Supreme Court of India has already taken 3 key decisions this year which will change the Indian healthcare completely. It is expected that these 3 key decisions will leave a huge impact on medical profession and healthcare practices in India. As we all know, the Supreme Court of India is the apex of the judicial system with the tremendous range of powers. It not only gives verdicts on criminal and civil disputes but also has special powers to question bureaucracy and legislative bodies of the government when it finds there is enough evidence of a breach of constitutional rights. In the last four months, the apex court has given three judgments that have a potential to change entire nation’s healthcare scenario. These decisions encourage transparency, better health and good ethical practices in the field of medicine. Let us visit these decisions: Supreme Court Will Monitor MCI: In the month of April, Supreme Court endorsed a wide variety of recommendations made by the parliamentary committee about the structure and irregularities observed in the functioning of Medical Council of India. As we are aware, MCI is responsible for registration of practitioners, policy decisions as well as granting permissions in medical education. After a significant uproar from the medical fraternity and general public, the Government of India decided to appoint a parliamentary committee to restructure MCI. While this restructuring takes place, the Supreme Court has appointed a panel led by Retd. Chief Justice Lodha to monitor MCI’s function for at least a year. It is a rare occasion where Supreme Court has exercised its powers to appoint a direct committee to oversee any a government body. The move is welcomed by both medical fraternity and ruling government. One Common Medical Entrance: In a historic ruling last month, Supreme Court also abolished validity of separate entrance test for undergraduate and postgraduate medical education. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of petitioners who requested the court to quash separate medical entrances by various government and private institutions. The petitioners had sighted that aspiring medical students were being subjected to a lot of stress due to multiple entrance exams. Moreover, they also sighted that there was potential for corruption and deserving students were not able to take an opportunity if they could not pay large sums as donations. The supreme court quashed its own judgment of 2013 and established the constitutional validity of NEET (National Eligibility Entrance Test) and set dates for the same. There were several cases filed by private parties and state governments but Supreme Court largely refused to take cognizance of them. Pictorial warning on Tobacco products: The Supreme Court refused to give stay and ruled in favor of union health ministry guidelines which dictate tobacco product manufacturers to have pictorial warning covering 85% of the packaging. Despite the large protests from tobacco lobby and workers unions, Supreme Court gave thumbs up for the government notifications. It has been largely debated whether these pictorial warnings have any effects at all. But, we should look at the data from countries such as Australia who imposed strong regulations such as health warning spreading about 85% percent and plain packaging. The data shows that tobacco consumption of Australia has dropped drastically since these policies were introduced in 2010 and steeper prices. For example a pack of cigarettes which was 12.50 Australian Dollars in 2009, now costs about 25 Australian dollars. These policies are crucial for Indian healthcare where tobacco related disorders have a huge impact on both health and economy. It won’t be wrong to say that the Supreme Court has ruled in favor health of India. These three major decisions by the Supreme Court hold a promise and can be seen as new light on the horizon. It will be important to see how the implementation of these verdicts takes place.