Delhi High Court issues notice in plea challenging appointment of Rohini hospital medical director

The Delhi High Court has issued notice in a plea challenging the appointment made by the Delhi Government to the post of Medical Director of Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital, Rohini, Delhi. 

The Division Bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh granted time to the Delhi Government to file its response. Previously, the Vacation Bench of Justice C. Hari Shankar and Justice Subramonium Prasad, vide order dated June 30’ 2021, re-notified the matter for July 7 on account of there being no urgency as the assailed order was passed on March 10.

The petition is in the nature of a PIL filed by one Suresh Gaur, who often visits the hospital for his ailments, through Advocate Avadh Kaushik. The plea seeks quashing of the order dated 10.03.2021 passed by the Delhi Government, wherein Dr Navneet Kumar Goel has been appointed as the Medical Director of the hospital. The plea further seeks enquiry into the said appointment by a high-level enquiry committee headed by a retired judge of the Delhi High Court.

The plea averred that Dr Goel does not possess requisite qualifications essential for appointment to the post and is not even having ‘Senior Administrative Grade’, which is a basic and essential requirement for the appointment to the post , in as much as he is much junior to other doctors working in the hospital. It is further averred that from the date of his appointment as the Medical Director, there is mismanagement, chaos and nuisance in the BSA hospital, reflecting his apparent incompetency and inexperience. Challenging the said appointment, the plea contends thus:

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“It is well settled that appointing a junior to make him senior to his seniors is clear casualty to Article 14, 16 and 21 of the Constitution of India.” 

It further contends: “It is a matter of record that the official respondents have themselves been adopting a procedure of preparing a seniority list before appointing Medical Director or Superintendent of a Hospital but in the present case, for the first time, they have buried the law and practice of course for oblique and extraneous reasons.”