The High Court on Wednesday reserved its orders on petitions on appointment of director of the Nizams Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad.
Two writ petitions were filed, one a quo warranto petition by Dr KR Balaram challenging the appointment of Dr Dharmarakshak as director and another by Dr Dharmarakshak challenging the government’s decision to constitute a search committee to appoint a new director on a regular basis.
During arguments justice Nooty Ramamohana Rao pointed out that the petitioner (Dharmarakshak) stated in the affidavit that the NIMS president had appointed him to the post for a period of one year but was saying now that his term was for three years. D Prakash Reddy, arguing for Dr Dharmarakshak, said that it was a mistake to submit that the term was for one year.
In fact, his tenure was three years and he was appointed on September 30, 2011 under Section 17(1) of the NIMS Act and on the basis of recommendations of the search committee.
The government has, as per its assurance given to the High Court, constituted a three-member search committee headed by minister for medical education K Murali Mohan to look for a suitable person to lead the NIMS. Principal secretary (medical & health) Ajay Sawhney and president of Public Health Foundation of India K Sreenath Reddy are the other two members.
Autorickshaw Permits
A division bench of the High Court on Wednesday referred petitions challenging the government’s decision to permit new autorickshaws to ply within the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Limits to a larger bench.
The bench comprising chief justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and justice NV Ramana was dealing with two public interest petitions and one writ petition challenging GO 90 dated September 5, 2012 issued by the state government permitting for registration of 20,000 new autorickshaws with permission to ply within the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation limits.