NEW DELHI, 9 May 2008 — P. Venugopal, the former head of India’s premier medical institution, yesterday won his fight against Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss when the Supreme Court struck down the All India Institute of Medical Sciences Amendment Act, 2007, which had fixed the retirement age of the institute’s director at 65 or a maximum tenure of five years. The court ordered reinstatement of Venugopal as AIIMS director.
Cardiologist Venugopal, 66, was forced to relinquish his office following the amendment to the institute’s rules.
Venugopal welcomed the court ruling and lost no time in moving back to his old office. “I am happy that the Supreme Court has upheld the truth,” Venugopal said. “The decision has thwarted the game-plan carried out in Parliament.”
It was jubilation time for doctors at AIIMS who had supported Venugopal in his fight with Ramadoss. They welcomed the Supreme Court’s verdict as their moral victory.
Venugopal was sacked in November 2007 after President Pratibha Patil gave her assent to the controversial bill passed by Parliament.
“This judgment of the Supreme Court has clearly sent a message that please don’t interfere with the functioning of the autonomous institutions and don’t tinker with the intellectuals who have given their life to build up these institutions,” Venugopal’s lawyer Mahendra Singh said.
In his appeal, Venugopal had challenged the impugned law as discriminatory, which was brought in solely with the purpose of removing him from office. The Supreme Court bench of Justices Tarun Chatterjee and H.S. Bedi upheld Venugopal’s appeal.
Former Law Minister and Venugopal’s counsel Arun Jaitley contended that the act was illegal. In March last year, the Delhi High Court upheld Venugopal’s continuation in the post. The matter was with the supreme Court, when the federal government tabled the controversial amendment in Parliament.
After yesterday’s ruling, there were demands from several quarters for the resignation of Ramadoss. AIIMS Faculty Association President Vinod Khaitan said Venugopal had become the symbol of the medical fraternity’s dignity.
“We are grateful to the judiciary and call upon the central government to sack the health minister,” Kumar Harsh, president of the AIIMS resident doctors association, said.
Describing the verdict as a major political blow to the health minister, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj demanded his immediate removal from the Cabinet. At a hurriedly organized news conference, she said: “This is not just a defeat for Ramadoss, but also for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government. We demand that Ramadoss resign as health minister, but in case he does not do that then the prime minister should drop him from the Cabinet.”
Ramadoss, however, categorically rejected demands for his resignation and said The court verdict was not his personal defeat. “There is no question of resigning, as it (AIIMS Amendment Act) was not a personal decision,” he said. “That was the government’s decision, which was passed by Parliament,” Ramadoss said.
All India Congress Committee (AICC) spokesman Shakeel Ahmed said the government would “study the verdict and take a decision.”
Venugopal was appointed AIIMS director on July 3, 2003, with his retirement due in July 2008. It was smooth-sailing for him until May 2006 when Ramadoss began questioning his running of the institution. Venugopal was accused of defying orders from the Health Ministry and encouraging anti-quota agitations in AIIMS after Parliament cleared a 27 percent reservation quota for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in higher institutes of learning.
