Court pulls up AIIMS, Centre

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, AUG. 29.

The Delhi High Court today pulled up the Union Government and the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for their failure to deal with the recent strike by doctors and employees in a befitting manner.

The strike was called off on Tuesday following a diktat to the Government by the Delhi High Court, and the court today drove this point home to the AIIMS authorities and the Centre.

A Division Bench comprising the Chief Justice, Mr. Justice Arajit Pasayat, and Mr. Justice D.K. Jain, asked the Union Health Ministry, the Director-General of Health Services and the AIIMS Director to file affidavits giving details about measures to be taken to prevent strikes in such important institutions.

The Bench also expressed its dissatisfaction over the AIIMS affidavit. The affidavit said that five employees were suspended and eight ad hoc workers dismissed, in an effort to break the strike.

The court on Monday has taken suo motu notice of the strike and directed the Government to restore normalcy at the Institute within 36 hours.

It had given the green signal to the Government to invoke the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) to restore the normalcy there.

The Bench also issued notices to the Union Health Minister, Dr. C.P. Thakur, in his capacity of the AIIMS' ex-officio Chairman, its Director, Dr. P.K. Dave, the Resident Doctors' Association (RDA) and employees of the Institute, to show why action shall not be taken against them.

The Bench asked the Solicitor-General, Mr. Harish Salve, to assist the court in the matter, keeping in view the paramount importance of the case.

The court also took on record a public interest litigation (PIL) by Mr. Sugriv Dubey, an advocate, seeking a direction to the doctors and the employees to join duty immediately.

The strike was triggered off following beating up of a doctor by a group a Group C & D employees following reported quarrel over dosages of medicines which the employees wanted to be increased for themselves.

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