E-Paper
Chandigarh: PGI’s dean academics Dr Naresh Panda retires
Hospital director Dr Vivek Lal honoured 12 officers/officials on their superannuation by giving a speech and presenting mementos to them
Dr Naresh K Panda, who was holding the charge of dean academics, and professor and head of the ENT department, PGIMER, retired on Saturday after serving the premier health institute for over three decades.
Hospital director Dr Vivek Lal honoured 12 officers/officials on their superannuation by giving a speech and presenting mementos to them.
Apart from Dr Panda; Dr LN Yaddanapudi, head, department of anaesthesia and intensive care, and Dr Ritu Nehra, a professor with department of psychiatry, along with nine other faculty members, also retired on Saturday.
On April 24, 2023, Dr Panda was named the officiating dean (academic), setting aside Dr Surjit Singh’s claim of seniority. Traditionally, the dean academics post is held by the senior-most faculty member.
The director of PGIMER assigned this role to Dr Panda without obtaining approval from the president of the institute, the Union minister of health and family welfare.
This decision disregarded Dr Singh, who was supposed to take over from Dr Rakesh Sehgal on April 1, 2023.
A seniority dispute emerged, and a high-powered committee updated the provisional seniority list on July 27, 2023, placing Dr Panda at the top and Dr Singh fourth, contrary to the 2022 list where Dr Singh was the senior-most.
The case is currently pending with the Chandigarh bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT). On March 8, the Union ministry of health notified the appointment of Dr Singh as dean (academics) in place of Dr Panda.
On March 11, acting on the plea from Dr Panda, CAT passed the order restraining PGIMER from receiving the joining report of Dr Singh as dean (academic). On March 19, Dr Singh had moved CAT seeking vacation of stay of March 11 order.
Later, CAT ordered that Dr Panda, will continue to hold the officiating charge of dean (academics) till May 7, the next date of hearing, and the order continued after two adjournments. The ministry had termed the initial charge allocation of officiating dean as ‘irregular’.
The health ministry stated before CAT that Dr Panda had not represented the matter regarding the appointment of dean through proper channel.
Dr Panda had not approached the director and president of the institute with his grievance and had directly filed application in the CAT, it added.
The ministry further stated that the president of the PGIMER governing body was not bound by the recommendation of the PGIMER director. The ministry also stated that claims of Dr Panda regarding seniority were misleading and incorrect.
In May 2023, Dr Singh, a former officiating director of the institute, had written to the Union health minister, accusing PGIMER director Dr Vivek Lal of making “mala fide attempts” to keep him away from the dean academic post. However, Dr Lal had denied the allegations.
Meanwhile, after Dr Panda retirement, the charge of dean academics has not been given to anyone yet, as CAT has directed PGIMER not to accept joining report of Dr Singh till next hearing of July 3.
