New Delhi: AIIMS Director P Venugopal on Tuesday told the Delhi High Court that just because a person has become the director, it does not mean that he cannot perform his primary duty of a doctor.
Hence, he is empowered to hold post of director and chief of cardio-thoracic vascular surgery at the premier medical institution.
Venugopal, who is at loggerheads with Union Health Minister Ambumani Ramadoss on the issue of regulation of his service, also told the court that the post of chief of super-speciality departments such as CTVS was not a post and was constituted for efficiently regulating the affairs.
The court was hearing a batch of petitions, which were filed by the Centre and the Centre of Public Interest Litigation, an NGO, alleging that Venugopal's appointment, made in 2003 for six years, was illegal as the Director was due for superannuation in the middle of his tenure in 2007.
He submitted before the court that he was legally empowered to perform his duty as a surgeon alongside his directorial responsibilities.
Opposing the Centre's contention that Venugopal was wrongly holding the post of chief of the cardio-thoracic vascular surgery department along with the post of the Director, his counsel Maninder Singh said: "It was incumbent upon such doctors to serve the patients as the statute provides that patient care and management would be the one of the main functions of the institution."
"The director, who was the master of the ship, was under a legal duty to ensure the same," he said.
Citing examples, he said the earlier directors of the institution had been performing their job as doctors and nobody had complained against them ever. The argument would continue on Wednesday.
Venugopal's counsel also alleged that the government was against him and that it was a fight between the Government and him.
(With agency inputs)
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