A Bill is being drafted under the supervision of All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) and the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) which will make it compulsory for engineers to register with a body to practice their craft, reports The Hindu.

The bill is being framed by a committee, appointed by AICTE, chaired by former director of Indian Institute of Technology - Madras (IIT-M) MS Ananth. The committee also embodies vice-chancellor of SRM Institute of Technology, Chennai Sandeep Sancheti, and chairperson of Aerospace, School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore J Chandrasekhar.

The committee is currently making some changes suggested by the MHRD in the first draft of the bill they submitted.

The need for the existence of such a bill and provision was first recommended by Metro Man E Sreedharan. He had advocated for a code of ethics and a council to register with on the lines of the existing councils for doctors, lawyers, and pharmacists.

According to AICTE chairman Anil D. Sahasrabuddhe, the committee has handed over its recommendations which “is in the discussion stage”. He further told, “The basic idea is like lawyers, architects, pharmacists and medical practitioners, engineers should get registered and there must be professional ethics and code which they all have to follow. If they don’t follow, their registration can get cancelled.”