New Delhi: The Supreme Court, in an interim order passed on Tuesday, stayed the operation of a decision of the Delhi High Court, which had quashed the appointment of Dr. Vaidya Jayant Deopujari as the Chairperson of the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine (NCISM).
A Bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Manmohan of the apex court agreed to examine the Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by the NCISM and issued notices to Dr. Ved Prakash Tyagi and Dr. Raghunandan Sharma, the original petitioners before the Delhi High Court, and others in the matter.
In an order passed on June 6, the Delhi HC held that appointment of Dr. Deopujari as Chairperson of NCISM was contrary to law since he did not fulfil the qualification prescribed under Section 4(2) of the NCISM Act, 2020.
Under the statute, a person to be appointed as a Chairperson of the NCISM has to be a person of outstanding ability, proven administrative capacity and integrity, who, first should have a postgraduate degree in any of the disciplines of the Indian system of medicine from a recognised university, and, second, should also have experience of not less than 20 years to his credit in any field of Indian system of medicine, out of which at least 10 years shall be as a “leader” in the area of healthcare delivery, growth and development of Indian system of medicine or its education.
Accepting the contention that Dr. Deopujari did not possess a post-graduate degree, a Bench of Chief Justice D.K. Upadhyay and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela said that though Dr. Deopujari held a Ph.D degree, a higher qualification than a post-graduate degree, the same will not necessarily subsume the requirement of a post-graduate degree.
“When we consider the expression ‘Post-Graduate Degree’ occurring in Section 4(2) of the NCISM Act, 2020, we are of the opinion that the Post-Graduate Degree in this provision shall mean a degree awarded after completion of certain period/course of study undertaken by a person who already has a graduation degree for the reason that Ph.D is not an educational qualification; rather it is a research qualification,” ruled the Delhi High Court.
Further, the Delhi High Court refused to accept the Union government's contention that Dr. Deopujari fulfilled the eligibility criteria since he was the head of R&D and F&D departments in a drug manufacturer company in Nagpur for more than 11 years.
It said, “We are unable to agree with the submission made on behalf of the respondents that such an experience can be said to be an experience of working as a ‘leader’ in the capacity of ‘Head of a Department’ or ‘Head of an Organisation’”.
After passing a stay order on the operation of the Delhi High Court's decision, the apex court remarked that it will consider the question whether a Ph.D degree can be treated as equivalent to the statutorily prescribed qualification of post-graduate degree.
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