Supreme Court Stays Delhi High Court's Order Ousting NCISMC Chairperson
The Supreme Court has stayed the Delhi High Court's Order setting aside the appointment of the Chairperson of the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine (NCISMC) - Vaidya Jayant Yeshwant Deopujari.
Deopujari had challenged the Order passed on June 6 which allowed two Writ Petitions against his appointment as the NCISMC Chairperson.
The two-Judge Bench comprising Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice Manmohan issued notice to the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine (and others on the Appeal filed by Deopujari).
The Petitions before the High Court were filed by Ved Prakash Tyagi, former President of the erstwhile Central Council for Indian Medicine, and Dr. Raghunandan Sharma. The Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions had issued a circular on June 9, 2021 appointing Deopujari as the Chairperson of NCISMC.
Senior Advocate Arun Bharadwaj represented the Petitioner while AOR Karunakar Mahalik represented the Respondents.
The Petitioners had alleged that Deopujari could not be appointed as the Chairperson of the Commission as he does not hold a postgraduate degree, mandated under the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine Act, 2020 (NCISM Act). The High Court held that Deopujari possessed a PhD degree whereas the requisite degree was MD or any other equivalent master's degree in any discipline of Indian System of Medicine.
"We have no hesitation to hold that the expression 'Post-Graduate Degree' occurring in Section 4(2) of the NCISM Act, 2020 in the context it has been used would mean a Master's Degree (MD) in any discipline of Indian System of Medicine which the respondent does not possess and, therefore, he lacks the requisite qualification for being appointed to the office in question", said the High Court.
The High Court had noted that Deopujari was admitted to the PhD course without undergoing the master's degree course, soon after graduating in Ayurveda (BAMS).
The High Court had also observed that every degree awarded by an university after graduation couldn't be termed as "post-graduation qualification" for the reason that in the domain of higher education in our country "post graduate degree" acquired a special meaning and significance and post-graduate degree means a master's degree like MA, MSc, MD, LLM or MEd.
It further said that the NCISM Act emphasised on the functions of the Commission to maintain high quality and high standards of education in the Indian System of Medicine and, as a result, phrases such as "head of a department" and "head of an organisation" were to be understood and construed in the context in which Parliament passed the Act.
Cause Title- Vaidya Jayant Yeshwant Deopujari v. Ved Prakash Tyagi & Ors.
Appearance:
Petitioner: Senior Advocate Arun Bharadwaj, AOR Ankita Chaudhary, Advocates Parmod Kumar Vishnoi, Chand Kapoor, and Muskan Jain.
Respondents: AOR Karunakar Mahalik, Advocates Ashok Kumar Panigrahi, and Nabab Singh.
Click here to read/download the Order
With PTI Inputs
