HC sets aside re-probe order of Director, Health Services

Vijay Arora

Shimla, January 3

The High Court has set aside the order of the Director, Health Services, for initiating a de-novo inquiry (re-inquire) against two staff nurses of Kamla Nehru Hospital, Shimla, who are facing disciplinary proceedings on the allegations of baby swapping.

Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan passed the judgment on a petition filed by staff nurses, alleging therein that on a complaint filed by one Anil Thakur on July, 4, 2016, to the Medical Superintendent, Kamla Nehru Hospital, that on May, 26, 2016, an incident of baby exchange had taken place in the hospital and requested for a thorough probe into the incident.

Thereafter, on December, 5 ,2016, the petitioners were served with Articles of Charges and statement of imputations of misconduct and mis-behaviour. The petitioners had denied the charges. It was further contended that Dr RK Baria was appointed as the inquiry officer to probe the charges and he conducted a detailed inquiry; and submitted the same to the Disciplinary Authority, Director, Health Services, on December 28, 2017, by observing therein that the charges were not proved.

However, the Disciplinary Authority, Director, Health Services, was not satisfied with the conclusion drawn by the inquiry officer and without setting aside the inquiry report as submitted by Dr RK Baria, ordered a de-novo inquiry by appointing Dr Sanjay Pathak, as the inquiry officer to inquire into the charges framed against the petitioners.

Aggrieved by this order, the petitioners approached the court on the ground that as per the rules framed in this regard, nowhere did the rule empower the Disciplinary Authority to set aside the whole inquiry and get the Article of Charges re-inquired from any other inquiry officer for no substantial reasons.

While allowing the petition filed by the two staff nurses, Justice Chauhan further directed the state authorities to take the inquiry report submitted by the inquiry officer on December 28, 2017, to its logical end as expeditiously as possible and in no event later than January, 31, 2020.

Courtesy: Tribune News Service