By IANS
New Delhi : The Delhi High Court Friday asked the central government and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here to file replies to a petition seeking quashing of appointments of 164 assistant professors in the institute four years back allegedly in violation of rules.
A division bench headed by Justice A.K. Sikari asked the respondents to file their replies by Dec 17 on the petition, which also sought an inquiry into the appointments.
The petition, by Sarman Singh, an additional professor in the department of laboratory medicine, alleged that the entire selection procedure was flawed. He contended: “A number of the appointees did not fulfil the eligibility condition at the time of their ad-hoc appointment (in 1995).”
Their plea for regularisation was dismissed in 2001. But in 2003, AIIMS went ahead with a fresh recruitment and gave the ad-hoc professors regular jobs, said the petition filed by counsel Varun Sinha.
He sought direction to the central government to notify the eligibility criteria for various teaching posts as decided in the institute’s governing body meeting in September 2002.
Sarman Singh had earlier filed a Public Interest Litigation in the high court challenging the appointments and promotions as illegal. However, a division bench dismissed it on the ground that he had no “locus standi”.
The matter then went to the Supreme Court, which held that there were prima facie irregularities in the appointments and promotions and directed the high court to examine afresh the public suit.
The petitioner alleged that the management had kept out deserving candidates, and, citing staff shortage, selected its own people on ad-hoc basis first to circumvent the selection procedure and then regularized the appointments.