New NCAHP Registration Regulations: How India Will Register Its Allied and Healthcare Professionals
The National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions (NCAHP) has notified the Registration of Allied and Healthcare Professionals Regulations, 2026. They were approved on 31 August 2026, published in the Gazette of India in September 2026, and came into force on publication.
The regulations set up one system for registering allied and healthcare professionals (for example physiotherapists, lab technologists, dieticians, optometrists and radiology technicians) in a Central Register and in State Registers.
A registration will be valid for five years. To renew it, a professional must complete at least 15 hours of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) every year, that is 75 hours in five years. CPD means short courses and training that keep a professional's skills up to date.
Where a State does not yet have a working State Allied and Healthcare Council, professionals can register directly on the Central Register. Reported fees are ₹2,000 for registration and ₹1,000 for renewal.
If renewal is not done in time, the person's entry on the Central Register will show as inactive. People who were already working before the law came in, but lack the prescribed qualification, can seek provisional (temporary) registration under Section 38 of the Act.
The aim is to make it easy to check whether a professional is genuinely qualified and registered, and to bring more transparency to allied and healthcare services.
National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions (NCAHP) Act, 2021
The National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions (NCAHP) Act, 2021 is the law that regulates India's allied and healthcare professionals. These are the trained people, other than doctors, nurses, dentists and pharmacists, who help diagnose and treat patients: lab technicians, physiotherapists, radiographers, dieticians, optometrists, operation theatre technicians and many more. The Act creates a national commission and state councils to set standards for their education, keep a register of qualified professionals, and stop unqualified people from practising.
The new Registration Regulations, 2026 put Sections 13 and 32 of the Act into action. They create the actual process for entering names in the Central and State Registers, set a five-year validity with CPD-based renewal, and allow central registration where State Councils are not yet working. This is the step that makes the Act's promise of a verifiable, transparent register real for patients and employers.
Delegated Legislation
Delegated legislation means laws made by a body other than Parliament or a State Legislature, using power given to it by a law. Parliament passes the main law, called the parent Act, which sets out the policy. It then allows the government, or a body like a commission, to make the detailed rules, regulations, orders, notifications or bye-laws needed to run that law. Because it sits below the parent Act, it is also called subordinate legislation.
The NCAHP's Registration Regulations, 2026 are a clear example of delegated legislation. The NCAHP Act, 2021 created the registers, but left the details such as validity, renewal and CPD to regulations made by the Commission. Under Section 67 of the Act, these regulations must be laid before both Houses of Parliament, which can modify or annul them.
- Regulations: NCAHP (Registration of Allied and Healthcare Professionals) Regulations, 2026; approved on 31 August 2026, published in the Gazette of India in September 2026
- Registration validity: 5 years
- CPD: at least 15 hours a year, 75 hours over 5 years, for renewal
- Reported fees on the Central Register: ₹2,000 for registration, ₹1,000 for renewal
- Unrenewed registration shows as "inactive" on the Central Register
- Provisional registration for existing workers without prescribed qualifications: Section 38 of the Act
- Parent law: NCAHP Act, 2021 (Act No. 14 of 2021), assent 28 March 2021
- Coverage: 10 recognised categories, 56 professions in the Act's Schedule
- Central Register: Section 13; State Register: Section 32
- Supreme Court deadline for full implementation of the Act: October 2024