NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court facilitated the transfer of the University College of Medical Sciences (UCMS) from the University of Delhi (DU) to the city government, after it vacated the stay order it had put on the implementation of a 2005 Union cabinet decision.
The court said non-implementation of the Union cabinet’s decision is against public interest and has only served the private interest of the employees of the institution.
The high court said this was evident from the January 2 incident where an injured patient died as he could not be admitted to Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital due to non-availability of CT scan and ventilator facilities, after he was turned away by other city hospitals.
Established in 1971, UCMS is a government college affiliated to DU. It is associated with Delhi government-run GTB Hospital, which serves as the teaching hospital.
The court said the relocation plan placed before it in another petition highlighted gross inadequacies of infrastructure at UCMS because of which patients were not getting critical care.
“We are of the opinion that the non-implementation of the Cabinet decision at the insistance of the petitioners (who are in tacit support of DU) has acted against public interest (patients and students) and is only focusing to serve the private interest of the employees and the staff of UCMS,” a bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet PS Arora said in a judgment passed on February 19.
The petitioners working at UCMS had challenged the Centre’s decision over apprehension that their promotions, seniority, service conditions and timely payment of salary could be adversely affected if the institution is handed over to the Delhi government. They wanted DU to retain control.
The court said the tussle between DU and the city government has adversely affected the quality of medical services at GTB Hospital.
Rs 250 crore allocation to augment facilities’
Delhi government’s counsel told the court that UCMS required an estimated RS 250 crore budgetary allocation, which will be made. A joint secretary in the health department of the city government assured the court that additional funds beyond the said amount will also be made available if required.