India, March 6 -- After legislators voiced concern in the Maharashtra Legislative Council on Wednesday that a proposed law to regulate diagnostic laboratories in the state has remained only in discussion for several years despite repeated reminders about illegal and bogus pathology laboratories operating across Maharashtra, health minister Prakash Abitkar told the House that action against such diagnostic laboratories cannot currently be taken under the existing Act due to a lack of clarity in its provisions.

Raising the issue in the House, MLC Manisha Kayande questioned whether technicians running pathology laboratories without qualified pathologists could be booked under the Maharashtra Medical Practitioners Act, 1961, given the absenc...