Kerala State Medical Council registration: fees and registers

Kerala State Medical Council

Registering as a doctor in Kerala: the Kerala State Medical Council, the 2021 Act that replaced the Travancore-Cochin Act, its separate register for each system of medicine, and its published fees.

✓ Last verified 22 September 2026

NMC has issued guidelines on ethical advertising and public communication

On 6 October 2026 the National Medical Commission’s Ethics and Medical Registration Board issued a public notice, framed in view of a writ petition before the Supreme Court of India and the Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002, informing registered medical practitioners and other stakeholders of Guidelines on Ethical Advertising and Public Communication by Hospitals, Medical Institutions and Registered Medical Practitioners. The notice states that the guidelines come into force with immediate effect. A page compiled from the guidelines has not been written yet; the notice is linked below.

Source: NMC public notice on ethical advertising, 6 October 2026

Authority: Kerala State Medical Council
Who it applies to: Doctors registering in Kerala. The council keeps a separate register for each system of medicine it recognises, so a practitioner is registered in one system, not in the council at large.
Documents: The council publishes one instruction document for each category of registration. Those documents could not be read when this page was written, so the documents required are not recorded here.
Fee: Permanent 3,000 · provisional 1,000 · additional qualification 2,000 · good standing certificate 5,000 · no-objection certificate 1,500 INR · as of 4 November 2016 for Indian qualifications
A foreign qualification costs far more: provisional 15,000, permanent 20,000, additional qualification 15,000, effective 13 January 2017. A tatkal option doubles some fees — permanent 5,000 for a five to seven day turnaround, additional qualification 4,000. For renewal (updation) in modern medicine the table lists a revised fee without stating its amount, and a fine of 5,000; the row carries the dates 5 January 2018 and 6 April 2018. Registering an additional qualification late costs 2,000 within three years, 6,000 between three and five years and 7,000 beyond five, from 1 April 2017.
Time limits: not recorded
Official portal: Kerala State Medical Council — registration and services

The Act it works under

The council states that it operates under the Kerala State Medical Practitioners Registration Act, 2021, which replaced the Travancore-Cochin Medical Practitioners Act of 1953.

That history shows up in official statistics: the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s council-wise table of registered doctors still lists this register under the name Travancore.

Five registers, not one

The council keeps a separate register for each system of medicine, and registers a practitioner in the system they qualified in:

modern medicine (allopathy)
the Indian system of medicine, covering Ayurveda and Siddha
homoeopathy
yoga
naturopathy

The rest of this page concerns modern medicine.

What the council registers

For modern medicine the council’s instructions cover provisional registration in two stages, permanent registration for MBBS graduates from Kerala and from other states, additional qualifications gained in Kerala, outside Kerala and abroad, and a five-stage route for foreign medical graduates. It also issues good standing certificates, no-objection certificates, non-utilisation certificates, validity certificates, holograms, duplicates, name changes and other corrections.

Fees

What for	Normal	Tatkal
Provisional registration	1,000	—
Permanent registration	3,000	5,000
Additional qualification	2,000	4,000
Good standing certificate	5,000	—
No-objection certificate	1,500	—
Duplicate, permanent certificate	10,000	—
Duplicate, provisional certificate	1,000	—
Name or address change	2,000	—

Amounts in rupees, effective 4 November 2016. Tatkal is the council’s expedited route; it gives five to seven days for permanent registration.

For a foreign qualification, effective 13 January 2017: provisional 15,000, permanent 20,000, additional qualification 15,000.

Registering an additional qualification late, from 1 April 2017: 2,000 within three years, 6,000 between three and five years, and 7,000 beyond five years.

Renewal

Renewal — the council calls it updation — is listed in the council’s fee table for modern medicine as a revised fee whose amount the table does not state, plus a fine of 5,000 rupees; the row carries the dates 5 January 2018 and 6 April 2018. In the Indian system of medicine and homoeopathy it is 3,000 or 2,000 rupees. The council’s pages did not state how often renewal falls due when this page was written. The national position is on renewal of registration.

Changes to this page

12 November 2026 Renewal in modern medicine corrected: the council's table gives 5,000 rupees as the fine, and lists the revised fee itself without an amount
22 September 2026 Page published from the council's own about, fees and instructions pages

Sources

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