By IANS
New Delhi : The Delhi High Court Wednesday issued show-cause notices to AIIMS president and Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss and its director P. Venugopal on a petition accusing them of violating court directions to frame guidelines for the appointment of a registrar.
Justice Gita Mittal asked the AIIMS president and the director to file their replies by Oct 31 on the contempt petition filed by Manoj Kumar, who alleged that the authorities had failed to implement the court orders.
The court also sought their response giving details about the reasons for delay in complying with its March 7, 2007 order directing them to frame in six weeks guidelines for the appointment of a registrar, which had been a bone of contention for the past one year.
In the petition, Kumar said the appointment of a registrar had been mired in controversy due to lack of proper guidelines.
Last week’s agitation by the students of the premier medical institute and hospital – protesting against non-receipt of the degree certificates signed by the authorities – was due to the controversial appointment of a registrar.
The director had said that he was the authority to appoint the registrar while the health minister, who is also ex-officio president of the institute, claimed he was the appointing authority, the petition said.
Ramadoss had refused to recognise the director’s move of appointing Sandeep Agrawal as registrar.
In the meantime, another judge of the court directed Ramadoss to sign all the degree certificates, which had been sent to him Tuesday.
Acting on the petition of some resident doctors, Justice S. Ravindra Bhatt said, “Once there is a ruling of this court the problem should have been worked out.”
Two resident doctors in a petition alleged that the minister did not sign the certificates sent to him Tuesday.
Counsel Mukta Gupta appearing for the minister submitted that Ramadoss did not receive the certificates and he would be signing them by the evening.
On the direction of the court, Ramadoss had out his signature on 49 certificates of the degree students Monday, who were planning to go abroad for higher studies.
“The 49 degrees/certificates forwarded to the minister containing signature of Sandeep Agrawal, the AIIMS registrar, shall be deemed to have been validly executed,” the court had said.
About 700 senior students, who had done residency and post-graduation in the institute, are also waiting to receive their degrees. The institute has not conducted its convocation for the past two years.
The high court observed that “innocent” students should not suffer because of the tussle between the government and the AIIMS management over technicalities for issuing degrees.
Ramadoss had said he would not sign the certificates as these were “illegal”. These had the signatures of Aggarwal who could not sign as he was not appointed by the Governing Body, according to him.