NEW DELHI: IN the latest order regarding the new recruitment policy for researchers, the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) has decided to withdraw the age relaxation criteria for the research staff who have not completed 10 years in the institute.
The order, released on August 29, will come into effect from September 1, and has left hundreds of researchers who have served six years and above with the institute but have not completed a 10-year period by August 31 vulnerable
For the unversed, the new recruitment policy puts a cap on the engagement of a researcher with the AIIMS for up to 6 years in total. Earlier, there was no fixed limit on the period of time a researcher spent engaged in medical research programmes offered at the institute.
The premier institute has now framed new guidelines for the recruitment of research staff to reduce the court-mandated practice that ensured their regularization. An order by the Supreme Court makes research staff, involved in various projects for 15 years with the institute, eligible for regularization at AIIMS.
“The recruitment criteria for research staff employed on a contract basis in research projects at AIIMS, New Delhi has been revised...No age relaxation to be given to any candidate applying fresh or shifting from one research project to another, except for those who have completed 10 years in research projects as on 31 August 2023,” the order copy read.
Some sources have pointed out that the order is against the Supreme Court’s directions and could be taken as a contempt of court order. They said that providing age relaxation is a “weightage” which the SC had pronounced in its verdict.
The order stipulates,“...the incumbents who have worked on the projects at AIIMS, on termination of the earlier project and/or the work assigned to them coming to an end, will be eligible to compete with others in the new. projects. Due preference and weightage would be given to the above project employees for their past experience of working in the project for employment in new projects at AllMS.” The research staff, who went on agitation after the AIIMS decided to cap the years of service, will reignite their protest.