Chandigarh, May 26 (IANS) A division bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) here Wednesday quashed the petition filed against the extension granted to K.K. Talwar as the director of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER).
The bench upheld that Talwar, who is also the head of department (HOD) of the cardiology department at PGIMER, will continue as director of this premier medical institute of north India.
The bench, however, directed the authorities to invite applications for the post of he cardiology department chief through advertisements and fill the post with a new candidate, preferably in the next six months.
The petition was filed by R.K. Yadav of the Bhagwat Dayal Sharma Medical College, Rohtak, who had challenged Talwar’s extension order.
In his petition filed July 1, 2009, Yadav had alleged that the central government had ‘illegally’ granted extension to Talwar.
‘In its judgment, the bench has observed that although no legal procedure was adopted while granting extension to Talwar but as the extension was confirmed by the cabinet committee and other competent authorities, therefore Talwar would hold the position,’ Ashwani Munjal, general secretary of PGIMER’s medical technologists association, told IANS.
He added: ‘However, at the same time the bench has directed that this irregularity should not be repeated in future while selecting the director. It has also ordered appointment of a new HOD in place of Talwar in the cardiology department in the next six months.’
Yadav’s petition said that the then union health minister Anbumani Ramadoss and the appointments committee of cabinet had acted in violation of the statutory provisions of the PGI Act, Rules and Regulations and the law laid down by the Supreme Court and the High Court of Delhi in appointing K.K. Talwar as director from April 1, 2009 to March 31, 2011, without following the prescribed procedure.
Yadav had stated that Talwar had been granted two years’ extension without issuing any fresh advertisement for the post.
