NMC advertising rules: what doctors in India can and cannot promote

Which rules apply to you

There isn't one rulebook for healthcare advertising in India. Your professional code depends on your system of medicine, and a set of general laws applies on top of it.

The NMC's 2023 regulations deserve a word, because many articles still quote them as if they were in force. They were notified on 2 August 2023 and put on hold three weeks later. The notice says they “shall not be operative and effective till further Gazette Notification”, and that the 2002 regulations come into force “with immediate effect”. We found no notification changing that as of October 2026. The 2023 text itself isn't the law, but many of its social media rules have now come back through the October 2026 guidelines, which are in force.

The core rule for doctors

Clause 6.1.1 of the 2002 code sets the principle: “Soliciting of patients directly or indirectly, by a physician, by a group of physicians or by institutions or organisations is unethical.”

It then says a physician shall not make himself or his name the subject of any advertising or publicity “which is of such a character as to invite attention to him or to his professional position, skill, qualification, achievements, attainments, specialities, appointments, associations, affiliations or honours”, or which would result in “self aggrandizement”. Nor may a doctor “boast of cases, operations, cures or remedies or permit the publication of report thereof through any mode.”

Two words in that clause matter most in practice: indirectly, which covers promotion done for you by a hospital, an agency or a friend, and any mode, which covers social media even though the code was written before it existed.

The NMC's October 2026 advertising guidelines

On 6 October 2026, the National Medical Commission published Guidelines on Ethical Advertising and Public Communication by Hospitals/Medical Institutions and Registered Medical Practitioners. The public notice (No. R-13014/01/2024-Ethics) came from the NMC's Ethics and Medical Registration Board and was signed by NMC Secretary Dr Raghav Langer. The guidelines came into force with immediate effect.

The notice says they were framed in view of Writ Petition (Civil) No. 1160/2023 in the Supreme Court, which we mention under hospitals below, and the 2002 Regulations. Its stated objectives are to preserve the dignity of the profession, prevent commercialisation of healthcare, protect patients from misleading medical claims, keep healthcare communication informational and evidence-based, bring hospital advertising in line with the standards for doctors, regulate digital healthcare promotion, and ensure ethical parity across all systems of medicine.

The guidelines don't replace the 2002 code. For doctors, they are read with the 2002 Regulations and the NMC Act, and if there's a conflict, those prevail (clause 4.2). They don't override any existing law (clauses 2.1 and 2.2), and the NMC can issue further clarifications and SOPs (clause 12).

Who they apply to

• Registered medical practitioners, meaning doctors on the National or a State Medical Register under the NMC Act (clause 3.7). Dentists and AYUSH practitioners follow their own councils' codes.
• Hospitals and medical institutions in any recognised system of medicine (clause 3.4). For them, the state's Clinical Establishments Act prevails if it conflicts with the guidelines (clause 4.3), and action is taken under that Act.
• Healthcare platforms that list doctors, which must not sell paid rankings of doctors (clause 9.4).
• Agencies and influencers indirectly: using an agency, influencer or platform doesn't free a doctor or hospital from responsibility for content they authorised, commissioned, sponsored, adopted or knowingly permitted (clause 4.4).

What the guidelines say

Penalties

For doctors, the state medical council acts, after a show-cause notice and with a reasoned order (clauses 10.2 and 10.3). The graded action it may take (clause 10.1):

A doctor can appeal to the NMC's Ethics and Medical Registration Board within 60 days, and file a second appeal within 60 days after that (clause 11). Hospitals are dealt with under their Clinical Establishments Act, but a doctor who personally approved a prohibited ad can still face the council separately (clause 11.5).

What is still unclear

Hiring a marketing agency. Clause 8.1(ii) says a doctor shall not “engage any third party for marketing medical services”. Read alone, that sounds like doctors can't use an agency at all. But clause 8.1(viii) says agencies and digital marketing agencies must not be paid per patient, and clause 4.4 makes doctors responsible for what their agencies publish, which only makes sense if agencies are allowed. Our reading, which isn't legal advice, is that the line is about what the agency does: factual information, education and profile management are one thing, and promoting the doctor or soliciting patients through a third party is another. We expect the NMC to clarify this under clause 12. Hospitals' factual advertising (clauses 8.3 and 9.1) isn't affected.

Asking for Google reviews. Explanation V bars requesting reviews for professional promotion on social media, and bars fake or paid reviews everywhere. It doesn't say whether simply asking every patient to leave an honest Google review is covered. Our reading is to ask honestly, never pay or reward, and never repost reviews as promotion.

Doctor videos as ads. Educational videos in a doctor's own name are allowed (clause 8.2 iii), but running them as paid promotion, with the doctor's face, sits close to clause 9.2. Until this is clarified, we keep paid ads about the clinic's services rather than the doctor.

What doctors can do

The code isn't only a list of bans. It explicitly allows a doctor to make a formal announcement in the press about:

1. Starting practice.
2. A change in the type of practice.
3. A change of address.
4. Temporary absence from duty.
5. Resuming practice.
6. Succeeding to another practice.
7. A public declaration of charges.

The 2023 regulations would have allowed these announcements in print, electronic or social media within three months of the change, and said doctors may do “public education through media without soliciting patients”. Health education is the ground councils have not objected to: explaining a condition, when to see a doctor, what a procedure involves.

Beyond that, a doctor can keep a factual signboard, list a clinic on Google and directories with accurate details, and have a website with qualifications, registration number, timings, services and fees. These inform patients who are already looking for a doctor, rather than soliciting them.

What doctors can't do

The clauses behind this table: 6.1.1 on soliciting, self-promotion and endorsing any commercial product, 6.1.2 on photographs, 7.20 on claiming to be a specialist, and 6.8.1(h), which says a doctor “shall not endorse any drug or product of the industry publically”. Testimonials aren't named in the 2002 text, but publishing patients' praise fits squarely into boasting of cases and indirect solicitation, and the October 2026 guidelines now bar requesting or sharing them for promotion outright.

Signboards, letterheads and prescriptions

This is where we find the most everyday breaches, usually made without anyone realising:

• What a signboard may say (clause 7.13): your name, qualifications from a university or statutory body, titles, your specialty, and your registration number with the name of your state medical council. Prescriptions should carry the same.
• Size: the code bans an “unusually large” signboard, without giving a measurement.
• Location: no signboard on a chemist's shop, or anywhere you don't live or work.
• Photographs: your photo on the signboard or letterhead counts as self-advertisement (6.1.2). Diagrams and pictures of the human body are allowed.
• Registration number (1.4.1): it must be displayed in the clinic and on all prescriptions, certificates and money receipts.
• Qualifications (1.4.2): only recognised degrees, diplomas and memberships may follow your name.

Timings aren't in the clause 7.13 list, though they're routinely shown and we haven't seen action over them. The same principles carry over online: your Google profile, website and social media bios should match your signboard, without photos used as promotion or titles you don't hold.

Hospitals and clinics

Clause 7.12 lets an institution run by a physician, such as a nursing home, maternity home or private hospital, advertise in the lay press. The ads “should not contain anything more than the name of the institution, type of patients admitted, type of training and other facilities offered and the fees.”

That's narrower than most hospital advertising you'll see. Corporate hospitals have long argued the code doesn't apply to them, and a Supreme Court petition filed by Dr Aniruddha Malpani in 2023 asked for hospital ads to be regulated. In April 2024, an NMC panel concluded that advertising rules for doctors and hospitals should be the same. The NMC's October 2026 guidelines, framed in response to that petition, now apply to hospitals directly: they may publish factual, verifiable information such as departments, equipment, emergency services, accreditation and charges, but not superiority claims, inducements or promotional portrayal of an individual doctor (clauses 8.3 and 9.1). Where a state's Clinical Establishments Act says something different, that Act prevails (clause 4.3).

What matters for doctors working in hospitals: councils have acted against the doctors who appear in hospital ads, not just the hospitals. In 2020 a Kerala council censured three doctors featured in hospital ads, and in 2022 the Maharashtra council issued notices to doctors whose photos were on hospital hoardings. If a hospital wants your photo on a billboard, the risk is yours.

Social media and videos

The 2002 code has no social media section, but its “any mode” wording covers it, and councils have used it: in 2024 the Karnataka Medical Council issued a show-cause notice to a gynaecologist with more than a million Instagram followers over reels recommending products.

The on-hold 2023 regulations spelled out what the regulator considers unethical online. Most of that list is now in force through the October 2026 guidelines, which add two more things: every post should carry your name, qualifications and registration number, and AI content must be marked as AI.

• No patient photographs or scan images.
• No requesting or sharing patient testimonials, recommendations, endorsements or reviews.
• No buying likes or followers, or paying to appear at the top of search results.
• No images of healed or cured patients, or procedure videos showing impressive results.
• No soliciting patients through social media.
• No AI-generated promotional campaigns, and no AI-made testimonials or altered patient images.

Two other sets of rules apply to health content online. ASCI's influencer guidelines, updated in April 2025, require anyone giving technical health advice to hold a relevant qualification and show it prominently at the start of the video. ASCI exempts generic information and public service messages. And the Department of Consumer Affairs' 2023 guidelines for health influencers require certified practitioners to disclose their credentials when sharing health information, promoting products or services, or making health claims.

In practice, educational videos in which a doctor explains a condition calmly are the safest kind of content a doctor can make, and they're also the kind that works best. We explain how we plan them on our social media page.

Referral fees and lead generation

Clause 6.4.1 bars a doctor from giving or receiving “any gift, gratuity, commission or bonus in consideration of or return for the referring, recommending or procuring of any patient”. It's usually applied to cuts between doctors, labs and hospitals, but its wording isn't limited to them.

Our reading, which isn't legal advice: paying someone a fee for each patient they bring can look like a commission for procuring patients. Paying for a service, such as a fixed fee for managing your Google profile or a percentage of ad spend for running campaigns, is paying for work, not for patients. Pricing per lead or per enquiry sits in between, and is a grey area. If an agency or aggregator offers a pay-per-patient arrangement, ask yourself how it would read to your council.

The October 2026 guidelines now say this directly: no commission, rebate, referral fee or lead-generation fee connected with procuring patients (clause 8.1 vii), and agencies, influencers and platforms can't be paid in a way linked to individual patients (clause 8.1 viii).

Dentists

Dentists have more room than doctors. Regulation 8.1 of the 2014 code says a dentist or group of dentists “may advertise provided that they maintain decorum”, and the code explicitly allows factual websites that list treatment facilities and fees, and listings in directories and on the internet. The National Dental Commission, which replaced the Dental Council of India in March 2026, hasn't issued a new code yet, so the 2014 regulations remain the reference point.

The limits are specific:

• No claims of being the “best” or “first”, even when announcing new equipment or services, and no claim of superiority or special skill online.
• No “demeaning solicitation and false promises” through ads or direct marketing.
• No camps targeting vulnerable groups in schools, colleges or old age homes.
• No agents or canvassers to bring in patients.
• No oversized or flickering signs, no signboard on a chemist's shop, and no self-photograph on the signboard or letterhead.
• “Specialist” only with a recognised specialist qualification, which in practice means an MDS.
• Educational TV programmes shouldn't carry the dentist's address, phone number or email, and no on-screen scrollers with contact details.
• No lending your name to toothpaste, toothbrushes or similar products.

Note the school camps rule. Dental camps in schools are a common marketing idea, and the code treats them as unethical. Our dental marketing page shows what we do instead.

Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha

The NCISM's 2023 regulations follow the 2002 medical code closely. Regulation 27(b) treats it as misconduct when a practitioner makes their name the subject of advertising, endorses a product, boasts of cases or cures, or displays a self-photograph on hoardings or public displays. An unusually large signboard, and signboards on chemists' shops, are also misconduct.

The regulations are more modern in one respect: they explicitly allow practitioners to write to the press on public health, give talks on radio, TV and internet platforms, and use “digital or internet platforms that enable individuals to search for healthcare providers”. Formal announcements, including a public declaration of charges, are allowed too.

Penalties are graded: for a first offence, a warning, suspension of up to three months or a penalty of up to ₹25,000; more for repeat offences, up to removal from the register. In December 2025 a Kerala council fined an Ayurveda practitioner ₹50,000 for Facebook posts claiming a therapy could cure diabetes, obesity, asthma and cancer.

On medicine ads: the Ministry of AYUSH omitted Rule 170 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, which required licensing-authority approval for Ayurvedic, Siddha and Unani drug ads, in July 2024. The Supreme Court stayed the omission in August 2024 and lifted the stay on 11 August 2025. Pre-approval is no longer needed, but the Drugs and Magic Remedies Act still bars cure claims for the conditions it lists. Our Ayurveda marketing page covers what this means for clinic content.

Homoeopathy

In our view, homoeopaths have the strictest code of the four. Regulation 8 of the NCH's 2022 regulations says soliciting patients “either personally or by advertisement in the newspapers, by placards or by the distribution of circular cards or handbills, shall be unethical”. Regulation 8 also bars, and Regulation 36 lists as misconduct:

• Advertising yourself through the price lists or publicity material of drug manufacturers or traders you're connected with (Regulation 8).
• Publishing cases, operations or letters of thanks from patients in non-professional newspapers (Regulation 8).
• Objectionable claims on e-platforms (Regulation 8).
• Displaying the scale of fees in public; it may be shown in the consulting or waiting room (Regulation 36).
• Advertising facilities you don't offer or diseases you don't treat (Regulation 36).
• Claiming to be a specialist without a qualification listed by the Commission (Regulation 36).

One helpful exception: Regulation 8 says being listed on an Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission platform isn't solicitation. Penalties go up to two years' suspension, a penalty of up to ₹50,000, or both, or permanent removal. In 2020 the Supreme Court, dealing with homoeopathy and Covid-19, noted that when the regulations prohibit advertising, practitioners have no occasion to advertise that they can cure a disease.

This is why homoeopathy marketing has to lean on a complete Google profile, a factual website and patient education rather than ads about conditions. Our homoeopathy marketing page explains the approach.

Physiotherapy

Physiotherapists come under the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions, which had not notified a final code of conduct as of September 2026. A draft published in April 2026 proposes rules similar to those for doctors: no soliciting patients, social media posts that are evidence-based, no buying likes or followers, no posting patients' photographs or case reports, no endorsing products, and announcements only when starting or changing a practice.

Whether physiotherapists may use the “Dr” prefix is also unresolved: a 2025 objection from the Directorate General of Health Services was withdrawn for further review. Until the code is final, we follow the draft for our physiotherapy clients, since it's likely to become the rule.

Laws that apply to everyone

Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954

Section 3 bars any advertisement suggesting that a drug can diagnose, cure, mitigate, treat or prevent the diseases and conditions in its Schedule. Section 4 bars drug advertisements that are false or misleading. “Advertisement” is defined widely enough to include announcements made by any means. A first conviction can mean up to six months in prison, a fine, or both.

The Schedule lists 54 conditions: appendicitis, arteriosclerosis, blindness, blood poisoning, Bright's disease, cancer, cataract, deafness, diabetes, diseases and disorders of the brain, diseases and disorders of the optical system, diseases and disorders of the uterus, disorders of menstrual flow, disorders of the nervous system, disorders of the prostatic gland, dropsy, epilepsy, female diseases (in general), fevers (in general), fits, form and structure of the female bust, gall stones, kidney stones and bladder stones, gangrene, glaucoma, goitre, heart diseases, high or low blood pressure, hydrocele, hysteria, infantile paralysis, insanity, leprosy, leucoderma, lockjaw, locomotor ataxia, lupus, nervous debility, obesity, paralysis, plague, pleurisy, pneumonia, rheumatism, ruptures, sexual impotence, smallpox, stature of persons, sterility in women, trachoma, tuberculosis, tumours, typhoid fever, ulcers of the gastro-intestinal tract, and venereal diseases.

The list matters most for AYUSH clinics and for anyone who dispenses their own medicines. A draft amendment in 2020 proposed 78 conditions and far heavier penalties, including for internet ads; as far as we can find, it hasn't been passed.

Consumer Protection Act, 2019

The Central Consumer Protection Authority can penalise misleading advertisements up to ₹10 lakh, and ₹50 lakh for repeat offences, and endorsers can be barred from endorsing. Its 2022 guidelines apply to clinic ads directly:

• Claims must be capable of substantiation, and research cited must carry its source and date.
• An ad must not exaggerate the accuracy, scientific validity or practical usefulness of what's offered.
• “Free” can only be used when there's genuinely no cost beyond unavoidable ones, which matters for “free consultation” offers.
• Endorsements must reflect the genuine, current opinion of someone with real experience.

Clinical Establishments Act, 2010

In the states and union territories that have adopted it, including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Haryana, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Assam, Rule 9 requires every clinical establishment to display its rates for each service and facility at a conspicuous place, in the local language and in English. Showing fees on your website and Google profile is consistent with that.

Specialty laws

Self-declaration for health ads

In May 2024, in the Patanjali case, the Supreme Court required advertisers to file a self-declaration before publishing ads, later limited to the health and food sectors: TV and radio through the Broadcast Seva portal, print and digital through the Press Council of India portal. The case was closed in August 2025. We couldn't confirm whether the requirement is still enforced, so check before running print, TV or news-site ads.

Google and Meta rules

Ad platforms add their own layer, and they enforce it automatically:

• Google Ads doesn't allow ads for prenatal sex determination in India, and restricts prescription drugs, unproven or experimental treatments and addiction services. Health is a sensitive category, so health ads can't use customer lists or lookalike audiences.
• Meta doesn't allow ads that assert or imply a person's health condition. “Struggling with hair fall?” gets rejected; “Hair fall treatment at our clinic” doesn't.

We cover these in detail on our Google Ads and Meta Ads pages.

What enforcement looks like

Many breaches never reach a council, which is partly why they're so common. But councils do act, often after a complaint from another doctor or a professional body:

Healthcare also features heavily in advertising complaints. In 2023–24 it was the most-violative sector in ASCI's complaints, at 19% of cases, and most of those healthcare ads potentially breached the Drugs and Magic Remedies Act. In 2024–25 ASCI flagged another 233 health ads to the Ministry of AYUSH for Drugs and Magic Remedies Act breaches.

How we apply this

Every piece of marketing we produce for a practice goes through the same checks:

• Clinic and treatment information, not praise of the doctor.
• No “best”, “No. 1”, “first” or “guaranteed”, and no cure claims, especially for conditions in the Drugs and Magic Remedies Act.
• No testimonials or before-and-after images in ads or promotion.
• No doctor photos in ads, hoardings or on signboards; team photos on the website and Google profile only to help patients recognise the clinic.
• Qualifications and registration numbers exactly as registered, and “specialist” only with the qualification.
• The doctor's name, qualifications and registration number on every post we publish.
• We ask every patient for an honest Google review, but we don't turn reviews into posts or ads.
• No AI promotional campaigns for doctors; any AI content we make is clearly marked as AI.
• Health education that explains, without soliciting.
• Ads written around services and facilities, following Google's and Meta's health policies.
• Fees paid for work, never per patient.
• Our work is factual information, education and profile management; we don't promote the doctor personally or solicit patients on their behalf.
• Stricter settings for homoeopathy, and the draft code for physiotherapy.

If you'd like us to check your current signboard, Google profile, website and social media against these rules, ask for a free audit.