AIIMS doesn’t wait for court

Institute has promoted 124 of the 164 doctors whose appointment has been in controversy since 2003. Delhi High Court is currently hearing the case

AIIMS doesn't wait for court

Institute has promoted 124 of the 164 doctors whose appointment has been in controversy since 2003. Delhi High Court is currently hearing the case

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Perhaps not what the doctor ordered. A controversy raging inside the campus of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has taken a new turn. The institute has promoted 124 out of 164 assistant professors, to additional professors, the matter of whose appointment is currently sub judice. The Delhi High Court has set July 7 as the next date of hearing on the issue.

What's up doc? The Centre has admitted inu00a0 Supreme Court that rules
were 'blatantly breached' by AIIMS in the recruitment of 164 assistant
professors in 2003 .u00a0File Pic

Doctors on campus are still confused as according to the institute, if in the final hearing the court declares the appointments illegal, then the recent promotions will be considered null and void. "If the institute has to decline the promotions after the court order, then what was the hurry to give them away? This is just a way of saying, they have been flouting the rules from years and they will continue to do so," said a senior doctor from the institute on the condition of anonymity.

Turning back the clock: A picture of policemen detaining medical
studentsu00a0 of Youth for Equality, during an anti-reservation demonstration,
outside AIIMS, in New Delhi on May 6, 2008. The activists were demanding
that Supreme Court judgment on reservation be implemented in rightful
manner by the government.

The appointments were made in 2003 when Dr P Venugopal was the director of the institute. Then Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss and Venugopal were locked in battle since the anti-reservation agitation in 2006 at the institute, which reportedly had the director's backing.

A five-member committee that was headed by Member of Parliament Karan Singh Yadav came to the conclusion that reservation policy for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes was also not properly implemented by the institute.

"The offer letter clearly says that the promotions are 'subject to...' which means that the promotions will ultimately become void if the court finds the promotion and reservation process illegal," said Dr YK Gupta, official spokesperson, AIIMS.

But faculty members feel this controversy will never come to an end. "The court has given the next date for the issue, but this procedure had has been going on for the past several years," said Dr Manoj Singh, President, Faculty Members Association, AIIMS.

"In 2001, court defined that initial appointment was against the recruitment rules and it was clearly mentioned in the appointment letter that the person will have no claim for benefit of seniority or regularisation. Hence they have to sink or swim with the conditions handed out to them," added another senior doctor from the institute, who wished to remain anonymous.

Interestingly, the High Court recently came out with a judgement saying that doctors can't go on strike as that would violate ailing citizens' right to life. The court has also sought action against all those who participated in the strike in 2007 and stopped work for 17 days and refused to attend to a large number of patients coming from different parts of the country. Now, a majority of the doctors who participated in the strike are among those who have been promoted.

"The institute is flouting rules again and again. They should be taking action against them; why are they promoting them? The institute once has accepted its mistake in 2007, then why instead of taking any corrective measures, they are continuously repeating their mistake?" asked a faculty member. "I am not aware of this particular issue. I can respond to it once I have all the details," said Dr YK Gupta.

Groundwork
AIIMS was inaugurated in 1956, and was built with a grant from the Government of New Zealand. AIIMS was established in New Delhi after former Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's initial proposal to set up the institute in Calcutta was turned down by the then Chief Minister of West Bengal Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy.

First at AIIMS
*u00a0AIIMS is the first Indian centre to perform a successful cardiac transplant. The surgery was performed by Dr. P. Venugopal, the ex director of AIIMS in 1994.
* AIIMS is a leader in Stem Cell therapy, especially Cardiac and Neurological.
* AIIMS has India's first and only minimally invasive surgery training centre, under collaboration with Germany.
* It is a pioneer of robotic surgeries in India, particularly the Da Vinci system for urology, and robotic CTVS

Controversy so far
*u00a0Between 1993 and 2003, AIIMS did not hold its regular faculty selections because of agitations and litigation by the faculty objecting to reservations for SC/ST/OBC candidates.
*u00a0In 2001, the high court ordered the institute that the adhoc period will not be counted for giving seniority to a doctor.u00a0
*u00a0The regular selection process was resumed after almost a decade in early 2003 when a Standing Selection Committee was set up to appoint Assistant Professors; these positions were advertised countrywide in 2002. On March 26, 2002, one hundred and seventy posts for assistant professors in medical disciplines were advertised, and, in the month of April 2003, the Standing Selection Committee1 of AIIMS held selections for these posts.u00a0
*u00a0In 2003, a committee was formed to look into the matter. The Committee observed that ad hoc selections between 1993-2003 as well as the process of regular selections of 2003 were characterized by a series of arbitrary, in house decisions and actions that violated procedures. The Committee did not find the pending court cases as sufficient justification for the administration to not follow any proper process for evaluating and selecting candidates. The Committee concluded that the selection process lacked fairness and was designed primarily to regularize the existing ad hoc Assistant Professors in large numbers.
* On 22nd January 2007, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare constituted a review committee, chaired by Lok Sabha MP Dr Karan Singh Yadav, to examine the entire Selection/Promotion process of Adhoc Assistant Professor to Associate Professor in the AIIMS.
*u00a0In 2008-2009, a report was filed and accepted by institute body in the court in their affidavit. After that, court asked the petitioner to implead the copy to others, which was argued by the others.
*u00a0The court gave the next date for 10th of March 2011 which was again moved to July 7 and is still pending.

'Put house in order'
The AIIMS management in Delhi came in for sharp criticism by the Parliamentary Standing Committee recently for the way it was running the institution. "The Committee is deeply disturbed by the manner in which the Department is treating its top most institute of the country, more so when there is no scarcity of earmarked funds for its development activities," it said in its latest report tabled in the current session of Parliament. The Committee found that the Management was not paying attention to the improvement and addition of infrastructure or filling the vacancies while the patient load was increasing "alarmingly" day by day. It noted that projects had been delayed despite having been approved by the Governing Body as back as 2008. The Committee was surprised to note that even very small works like additional lift in hospital, expansion of existing cafeteria in eastern campus and construction of community centre were not progressing. It also expressed its unhappiness over what it called "the dilly-dallying" approach of the Department on the issue of setting up the Burns Unit. he Committee found untenable the Management's answer that the project was dropped to avoid duplication. Funds to the tune of Rs 48 crore had been earmarked for the purpose during the 11th Plan. Moreover, availbility of any service at Safdarjung Hospital could not be made the criteria for not initiating the same at AIIMS. The AIIMS authorities have also drawn flak for not filling up the large number of faculty level vacancies.

Somthing Amiss
The Centre admitted in Supreme Court in 2007 that rules were 'blatantly breached' by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in the recruitment of 164 assistant professors in 2003, when Dr P Venugopal was AIIMS Director, several of whom have been promoted. Even the time spent by the assistant professors in other institutes, including outside the country, were counted by the AIIMS in promoting the faculty members, the Centre said in an affidavit filed before the apex court. The affidavit was filed in response to a directive from a bench of Justices SB Sinha and Markandeya Katju, which had asked the Delhi High Court to examine afresh a PIL which complained that 164 assistant professors were illegally appointed by the institute in violation of rules.u00a0 According to the Centre, it has decided to have a re-look at the entire issue relating to selection of assistant professors and the promotion of ad hoc assistant professors selected through the regular selection board under the Assessment Promotion Scheme in 2003.

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