Court slaps Rs 2,500 fine on AIIMS

Delhi High Court slaps a fine of Rs.2,500 on the AIIMS for delay in providing details of action taken against those medical students who had supported an anti-reservation agitation last year.

Delhi High Court on Wednesday slapped a fine of Rs.2,500 on the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for delay in providing details of action taken against those medical students who had supported an anti-reservation agitation last year.

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A division bench of Chief Justice MK Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Khanna asked the AIIMS to deposit the amount with the High Court Lawyers Welfare Fund for its failure to file an affidavit after the court issued notice to it in June last year on a public interest litigation (PIL).

The petition alleged that Scheduled Caste and Scheduled tribe students of the premier medical college and hospital were ill-treated in its campus by some general category students.

"The AIIMS has filed the reply only yesterday giving no opportunity to the petitioner to file the rejoinder and forcing the court to defer its hearing," the bench said.

Appearing for the SC and ST Medical Students Association, counsel Prashant Bhushan sought direction to the institute's management to take action against those students who had forced students from the reserved category to participate in the anti-quota protests.

Accusing the AIIMS management of provoking students to go on strike, counsel said that it had ignored repeated orders from the court terming the strike as illegal.

The AIIMS counsel, however, said a Committee was set up to investigate the matter and it had filed a report in May and its recommendations were under the consideration of the government.