By IANS,
New Delhi : The Delhi High Court Tuesday slammed the central government for initiating the process for and removing from service a railway hospital doctor without giving him a hearing, and termed it a case of “kangaroo court”.
“This is a classic case of injustice done by the government authority. It’s like court martial where you have taken action without giving an opportunity to the affected party to be heard. It’s like a kangaroo court,” observed the division bench of Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah and Justice S. Muralidhar.
The court’s observation came during the hearing of a government petition challenging a single bench order earlier to reinstate the doctor working with the Northern Railway Central Hospital.
The bench was not satisfied by the government’s contention. “We find the action was completely arbitrary and needs to be set aside. What would happen to his career? You should have fairness in the inquiry. We are not convinced by your arguments,” it said.
The government contended that many patients and doctors of the hospital had filed complaints against the doctor, Manoj Singhania.
“The action was taken against the doctor after a fact-finding committee found that the allegation against him was true,” counsel for the government said.
The bench after going through the records found that proceedings of the inquiry committee were not transparent and no complaint was filed against the doctor.
“Show us just one complaint filed against the doctor. If he is not fit, then there has to be some proper procedure to take action against him. But in this case you conducted inquiry without involving the affected party,” the court said.