BackDelhi HC asks Ramadoss to sign AIIMS degrees within 24 hours
Delhi HC asks Ramadoss to sign AIIMS degrees within 24 hours
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New Delhi: In a major relief to AIIMS resident doctors and students facing problem in getting admission for higher studies due to delay in procuring degrees, the Delhi High Court on 3 September directed the Union Health Minister to put his signature on the certificates within 24 hours.
Justice S Ravinder Bhatt also held that the degrees bearing the signature of the Registrar, whose appointment has been the bone of contention between AIIMS Director P Venugopal and Minister Anbumani Ramadoss, shall be deemed to be valid.
“The Union Health Minister shall affix his signature on 49 certificates/degrees as well as such other certificates of the students who need these to take admission for higher studies," Justice Bhatt said.
“The Minister shall sign the certificates within 24 hours," he directed.
The Court also directed the AIIMS authority to immediately forward these certificates to the Minister’s office so that these could be sent to him by flight as he was in Chennai.
“The 49 degrees/certificates forwarded to the Minister containing signature of Sandeep Agrawal, the AIIMS Registrar, shall be deemed to have been validly executed," the Court said.
Earlier, Mukta Gupta, appearing for the Minister, pointed out that the Registrar’s appointment was illegal and any certificate bearing his name shall be deemed to be invalid.
The court made it clear that its order would have no implications on cases in which the Registrar’s appointment had been challenged.
It refused to entertain Minister’s submission that in case the Registrar’s appointment is set aside then the degrees having his signature would become invalid.
“This is a baseless argument. Even a Judge whose appointment is set aside by the higher Court, the judgement delivered by him remains valid," Justice Bhatt said adding “you cannot be allowed to use the reason to derail the process."
“If you want to remove the Registrar then remove it, but you must put your signature in the light of problem faced by the students," the Judge said.
The petition was filed by some medical students who had passed the MBBS examination, but had not got certificates/ degrees containing signatures of AIIMS’ President, Director, Registrar and the Dean Academics.
Instead they were issued certificates/degrees signed by its Director and the Registrar.
The Court made it clear that its order would have no implications on cases in which the Registrar’s appointment had been challenged.
It refused to entertain Minister’s submission that in case the Registrar’s appointment is set aside then the degrees having his signature would become invalid.
“This is a baseless argument. Even a Judge whose appointment is set aside by the higher Court, the judgement delivered by him remains valid," Justice Bhatt said adding “you cannot be allowed to use the reason to derail the process."
“If you want to remove the Registrar then remove him, but you must put your signature in the light of the problem faced by the students," the Judge said
The petition was filed by some medical students who had passed the MBBS examination, but had not got certificates/ degrees containing signatures of AIIMS’ President, Director, Registrar and the Dean Academics.
Instead they were issued certificates/degrees signed by its Director and the Registrar.
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