In a highly ironic matter, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has been asked to direct state governments to fill the large number of vacant posts in the Medical Teaching Service in a time-bound manner, while three-fourth of the posts in the four autonomous boards of the NMC are lying vacant.The Board of Undergraduate Medical Education, the Board of Postgraduate Medical Education and the Board of Ethics and Medical Registration each have only one part-time member. Each board should have five members including the chairman. The Medical Assessment and Rating Board alone has a Chairman and a part-time member, while the remaining three posts are vacant.When contacted, NMC president Dr Abhijat Sheth, while confirming that the process to fill the vacancies in the board is currently under consideration by the government, told TOI that the NMC is fully functional, with 28 out of 33 members currently serving. “All statutory requirements, including quorum, are being duly met, and the functioning of the Commission and its boards is unaffected,” he said.Dr Sheth said, “Policy-level decisions continue to be taken at the Commission level. For matters related to autonomous boards, the Chairman is empowered to constitute expert committees under the Act, and all work is being done through these duly constituted mechanisms.”Even though the NMC boards are full of vacancies, the Patna High Court has asked the Commission to direct the states to fill the teaching vacancies within six months. The court asked the NMC to “take appropriate action in directing the state government to initiate appointment/recruitment drive to fill the large number of vacant posts in the medical teaching service within a time bound period.” The court was hearing a plea challenging the Aadhaar-enabled biometric attendance system in medical colleges.Keeping the order in mind, NMC has directed all the states and union territories to take necessary steps.