CAT’s city bench vacates stay order related to PGI teacher’s ACR

In a significant development,the Chandigarh Bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) vacated the stay granted by it on October 20 whereby Dr Raj Bahadur,Director of the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH-32),Chandigarh,was restrained from making any remark on the annual confidential report (ACR) of the applicant Dr Alka Sehgal,Associate Professor of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology,GMCH-32.

The main case has been posted for January 5 by a division bench headed by Justice S D Anand (Retd High Court Judge). Dr Sehgal had alleged that she was removed from the research project sanctioned by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) only after the letter written by Dr Gurjit Kaur,senior lecturer,Department of Physiology,GMCH-32,in December,2009. In this project Dr Gurjit Kaur was appointed principal investigator and Dr Alka co-investigator.

She had charged that Dr Kaur had a grudge against her because in June 2009 Dr Sehgal had given a representation to the hospital that Dr Kaur was not qualified to be appointed as teaching faculty in her own specialty of Bio-Physics. Based on her representation,an inquiry was also ordered by the competent authority against Dr Kaur and Dr Raj Bahadur in February this year,the petitioner had alleged.

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She had further alleged that there is apprehension that her Annual Confidential Report (ACR) may be spoiled because of this episode. The petitioner had demanded that directions should be issued to Dr Raj Bahadur to not to give comments on the ACR.

The Bench today vacated the stay,which means that there is no roadblock in writing of the ACR of Dr Alka Sehgal by the Director Principal.