A contempt petition has been moved in Delhi High Court for initiating the contempt of proceedings against the Officers of Central/Delhi Government and Director of Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS) for allegedly not willfully complying the court's directions to tackle the shortage of doctors at IHBAS.
The plea has been filed by lawyer and social activist Amit Sahni alleging that the order passed by Delhi High Court on September 2, 2020 asking to fill pending vacancies at IHBAS, is not being adhered by the concerned authorities. The contempt petition will be heard by Justice Najmi Waziri on Monday.
Plea states, IHBAS, the premier mental health and neurosciences institute of the country has been suffering from an acute shortage of doctors as it is functioning with 24 doctors against the sanctioned strength of 103.
It also states that the petitioner had made a representation in August last year for filling the pending vacancies of faculty and other medical staff at IHBAS, but no action was taken.
It added that the petitioner had earlier too approached the court and division bench of Delhi High Court.
"The division bench had on September 2, 2020, directed the concerned respondent authorities to treat this writ petition as a representation and to look into the grievances ventilated by the petitioner in this petition in accordance with law, rules regulations and government policies applicable to the facts of the case. Court had also said that, we expect that the concerned respondent authorities shall fill up the vacancies as early as possible and practicable," the plea said.
The petition states that even the Faculty Association of IHBAS (FAI) also took note of the situation on January 29, 2021, in its minutes of the meeting. They brought the grievance regarding the shortage of doctors at 23 per cent which is leading to over-burdening the existing faculty members.
FAI also noted that even pursuant to the directions of Delhi High Court to fill vacancies as early as possible, nothing has happened till date, the plea said.
It added that the shortage of faculty and staff is a matter of serious concern and despite the directions of this Court, the grievance raised by the petitioner has not been addressed even after five months.
The National Medical Commission considering the assessment report dated August 31, 2020 declined to recommend the recognition of the DM (Neurology) Course of the Institute due to deficiencies of Professor, Associate Professor and Assistant Professor, plea said.
( With inputs from ANI )
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