Strongly defending its move to sack AIIMS Director P Venugopal as "warranted by public interest", the Centre on Monday moved the Delhi High Court seeking quashing of the order of a single-judge bench which stayed the Institute's Governing Council's decision to terminate his services.
Listing 45 grounds to justify the termination move, the Centre's counsel Mukul Gupta accused Venugopal among other things of actively patronising the anti-reservation agitation by the resident doctors in the Institute's premises in May this year.
Quoting Regulation 31 of the AIIMS Act, the appeal contended that the Government was fully empowered to sack the Director without the need of issuing any prior notice.
Questioning the maintainability of the petition filed by Venugopal challenging the move to remove him, the Centre argued that the High Court had no jurisdiction to go into the issue of the "sufficiency or insufficiency of the material available before the Governing Body" which recommended the Director's termination.
Rejecting allegations of malafide intentions in the termination move, the Centre attested certain confidential documents in the appeal seeking to buttress its charge that the official was in "gross violation" of rules and his termination was in "public interest."
The Centre also claimed that a number of OSDs were being provided guest house accommodation at the Institute for the past several years and as such the allegation that Union Health Minster A Ramadoss had favoured his own staff for availing the facilities was baseless.
{{/usCountry}}The Centre also claimed that a number of OSDs were being provided guest house accommodation at the Institute for the past several years and as such the allegation that Union Health Minster A Ramadoss had favoured his own staff for availing the facilities was baseless.
{{/usCountry}}A Division Bench of the High Court is expected to take up hearing of the appeal on Wednesday.