Notice to Dr Venugopal, AIIMS asked to delete sentence ag.Judge

New Delhi, Oct 30 (UNI) The Delhi High Court today issued notice to AIIMS Director P Venugopal and asked the petitioner-- AIIMS -- to delete the paragraphs casting aspersions on the Judge, who had said that the decision on the director's removal would be subject to the final verdict on the petition.

A division bench of acting Chief Justice Vijender Jain and Justice Kailash Gambhir asked the petitioner to file amended petition deleting the paragraphs by November 20, the next date of hearing.

Both the Union Government and AIIMS had challenged the decision of Justice Anil Kumar, who in his order of October 18 asked the Institute Body(IB) not to implement any adverse decision or resolution, if passed, against the petitioner-- Dr Venugopal-- till further orders regarding his tenure, appointment and his functioning as Director of the AIIMS; and any such resolution and decision shall be subject to the outcome of the writ petition.

Senior Cousel Arun Jaitley, appearing for Dr Venugopal, submitted that it was contempt of court in the part of the petitioner to question the functioning of the Judge in the court.

Senior Counsel P N Lekhi, appearing for AIIMS, submitted that Justice Anil Kumar was operating the laptop computer while the petitioner's counsel was arguing and he was not using the conventional method of noting down the points on paper by a pencil.

The Judges objected to the paragraphs in the petition drafted by Government Counsel Mukul Gupta which reads-- ''Whether the conventional system of recording the submissions made by counsel on long sheets of paper in pencil and the submissions made during regular hearing with pen in a regiser area not the only method for the proper dispensation of justice?'' Dr Venugopal had challenged the decision of the IB to dismiss his service as ''unlawful and unjustified. ''The petition would come up for hearing in first week of November, 2006.

UNI PAT VD RK1845