He was supposed to be crowned as the president of the World Medical Association at a general assembly in Vancouver this week.
But instead of presiding over an august global body of physicians, who work for the highest possible standards of ethical behavior, one of India’s top medical professionals Dr. Ketan Desai, will be fighting allegations that he took a bribe of about 20 million rupees or C$500,000 for granting recognition to a medical college in Patiala, Punjab.
Desai, will also not be able to practice as a doctor after the Board of Governors of the Medical Council of India decided to suspend his license this week to stop the World Medical Association general assembly from confirming his presidency in Canada.
The controversy has cast a pall over the meeting expected to attract hundreds of doctors from around the world to a variety of sessions at the Fairmont Hotel in Vancouver.
At Press Time, it was unclear if Desai would make the trip to Canada or even be given a Canadian visa, pending the criminal charges.
The executive committee of World Medical Association is unlikely to confirm Desai who was elected unopposed as its president for 2010/11 in New Delhi last year.
Desai, the former President of the Medical Council of India was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) earlier this year after he was found to be accepting a bribe for granting recognition for a medical college in Punjab.
Desai was removed from his Indian post and was replaced by the board of governors in May after he was arrested.
“In view of the serious and grave allegations against you having prima facie merit, permission granted to you to practice medicine has been suspended during the pendency of the complaint”, a press release from the Medical Council of India issued this week said.
This would debar “you from practicing medicine and participating as a doctor in a medical conference anywhere representing doctors in any medical council, conference and association”, it said.
According to reports, the suspension came on the back of Desai successfully applying a petition with an Indian court to travel to Vancouver in order to attend the annual meeting of the World Medical Association late this week.
The ruling to strip Desai of his practicing license came after a court said Desai, could travel to Vancouver by depositing a 1.5 million rupee surety.
Despite him facing a total of six charges, the court ruled: “Considering the facts that the accused has remained in custody, documents relating to his properties and bank accounts have already been seized/frozen by CBI during the probe and there being no specific reason for expressing the apprehension of his not returning to India. I am inclined to allow the application (of Desai to go to Vancouver),”
Besides filing of an undertaking that he would not tamper with the evidence, the court also asked Desai to surrender his passport on his return.
“The accused may not come back to face the prosecution and allowing the plea was not in the interest of the justice,” the prosecutor said. The court, however, rejected the plea.
Desai is also being investigated in Kolkata for taking a 200 million rupee bribe from a private hospital - KPC Medical College, to sanction extension for its academic session.
In addition, he faces charges for owning assets – an estimated 240 million rupees -  far exceeding his legal income.
Following his arrest, Indian authorities had invited complaints from public and the medical fraternity who might be in the know of things about Desai’s demands for money from various medical colleges.
The public notice yielded over 154 cases till date, according to Indian media reports.
Desai was also in the centre of a controversy earlier this year after some of India’s doctors said amendments to medical rules he drafted favoured some pharmaceutical giants
A nation-wide signature campaign demanding a reversal of the amended rukes attracted over 3,000 doctors to sign a petition.
Born the son of a humble primary school teacher from Maroli, a town of South Gujarat, Desai rose to rule the Medical Council of India (MCS), a self regulatory appellate body of doctors entrusted with the herculean job of regulating the medical practitioners in the country.
An Indian newspaper account of Desai described him as a self-professed champion of ethical medical practices and that his track record is a testimony to the unscrupulous practices rampant in the medical profession In India.
From a childhood spent in a decrepit government quarter to his present abode, a palatial bungalow, worth more than 100 million rupees in Ahmedabad’s toniest locality, Desai has come a long way from his humble moorings, the newspaper paper said.
 After completing his schooling from a primary school in Maharastra, Desai went on to study medicine and subsequently a post-graduate superspecialisation in urology.
In 1983, he became the head of the Urology department of his alma mater, the BJ Medical College and Civil hospital, Ahmedabad.
His penchant for donning leadership positions and his love for campus politics started manifesting from the early days when he began his stint as a syndicate and senate member with Gujarat University to and then by donning the mantle of President of Gujarat Medical Council way back in the 90s.
Over the years his grip over the entire medical fraternity has become so overpowering that the entire medical fraternity of Ahmedabad was present to felicitate him following his un-contested victory as President of World Medical Association last year.
His wife Alka Desai is practicing gynecologist who runs flourishing nursing home in the heart of Ahmedabad.
Currently there are 143 government colleges and 157 private medical colleges in India. All these colleges come under Desai’s rule until he was arrested.