The Delhi High Court on Monday asked the Government of NCT Delhi and the Director of the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS) to file a compliance report regarding the recruitment of doctors at IHBAS Hospital, which was allegedly facing acute shortage of 76 doctors.
The bench of Justice Subramoniam Prasad on Monday after taking note of the submission said, the court understands the difficulty but in any case vacancies of doctors must be filled at the earliest.
Court posted the matter for May 31, 2022, for the next date of hearing.
A contempt petition was 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) alleging for not wilfully complying with the court's directions to tackle the shortage of doctors at IHBAS.
The plea was 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 to by the concerned authorities.
He said in the Plea, "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 27 doctors against the sanctioned strength of 103."
The plea further stated, "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 the 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 petition stated 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 the Delhi High Court to fill vacancies as early as possible, nothing has happened to date, the plea said.
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, the plea said.
( With inputs from ANI )
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