Court order under examination: Ministry
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, August 28 2015 :
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has informed Prof S Sekharjit that the order issued by the High Court of Manipur on July 31 with regard to a writ petition he filed challenging an earlier order which relieved him from the post of RIMS Director is under examination.
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (NE Division) Under Secretary Murari Lal Sharma sent a letter to Prof S Sekharjit on August 27 informing that the Ministry has been examining the order issued by the High Court of Manipur on July 31 .
Notably, Prof S Sekharjit was relieved from the post of RIMS Director by an order issued by the Health and Family Welfare Ministry on August 25 last year.
Challenging the same order, Prof Sekharjit filed a writ petition at the High Court of Manipur.
Acting on the writ petition, the High Court passed a ruling on July 31 directing the Ministry to issue a fresh order within three weeks after plugging in all loopholes detected in the earlier order or reinstate Prof S Sekharjit to the post of RIMS Director if no fresh order can be issued within the specified period.
The Court further specified that the period of three weeks should be counted from the date the Ministry receives its order.
As per the Court order, Prof Sekharjit came to RIMS on August 22 and gave a letter to the RIMS Deputy Director saying that he was resuming his duty as RIMS Director.
Copies of the same letter were also sent to the PS of Union Minister, Health and Family Welfare and PS of the Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Subsequently, Under Secretary Murari Lal Sharma sent a reply letter to Prof Sekharjit yesterday.
The letter said that a certified copy of the High Court's order was received at the Ministry on August 12.As such, the period of three weeks specified by the Court extends up to September 2 .
The Court's order is under examination and a final decision would be adopted before the specified period expires and the same would be communicated in time, said the Under Secretary's letter.
On the other hand, a well placed source informed The Sangai Express that the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has already taken a decision with regard to the order issued by the High Court of Manipur on July 31 .
The decision is said to be rather stringent and the fate of Prof Sekharjit who would be retiring in mid-September hangs in balance.
It is said that the Ministry's decision would be issued in the form of an order and the same would be delivered to RIMS authority shortly, informed the source.