HC fines health director for delay in appointment

HC fines health director for delay in appointment

K.Kaushik@timesgroup.com

Madurai:12.10.2020

Taking a serious view of the delay in appointing a doctor to a vacant post, Madras high court imposed a cost of ₹10,000 on the director of public health and preventive medicine as well as an official who held the post earlier for submitting misleading statements before the court. The court was hearing the petition filed by Dr B Dinesh Kumar who was working as assistant surgeon at the Vadamadurai primary health centre in Dindigul.

Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) had issued a notification in 2014 inviting applications from eligible candidates for 33 posts of health officer in the state public health service. The provisional selection list showed the petitioner as placed in serial number one of the reserved list for Most Backward Class. Since a person who was employed in the said post belonging to the same community had resigned, the petitioner sought appointment to the post.

Justice R Suresh Kumar observed that the petitioner had filed two petitions before the court earlier, and this was the third, to get his legitimate right of appointment to the post which he ought to have been given long ago. The director of public health and preventive medicine in the positional note submitted before the court had stated that the petitioner’s name was not in the waitlist and he had subsequently written to the health secretary seeking to fill up the post as per the waitlist.

The judge observed that the office of the director, whether the earlier incumbent or the present incumbent, had not cared to fill up the vacancy. “This kind of lethargic attitude on the part of the officials, which is a public utility department, has indicated a caution that all is not well,” noted the judge and directed authorities to issue appointment order to the petitioner. Since the judicial time of the court was consumed due to submission of wrong and misleading information, the judge imposed a cost of ₹10,000 each on director of public health and preventive medicine Dr T S Selvavinayagam and Dr K Kulanthaisamy, the earlier incumbent of the post. The judge directed them to pay the same within two weeks to the registrar (administration) of HC Madurai bench which shall be used to augment the Covid-19 situation.