CHENNAI: The Madras High Court (MHC) has quashed the show cause notice issued by the State against a doctor who has allegedly not reported for duty and it also directed the dean of Madras Medical College (MMC) to hand over the original certificates of the doctor.

Admittedly no posting order was ever sent to the petitioner and in such an event, this Court is unable to understand how the petitioner is to report for a duty to which he was never assigned, observed Justice Anita Sumanth while quashing the show cause notice.

Petitioner L Soundara Rajan moved the MHC seeking to quash the show cause notice issued against him and to direct the dean of MHC to return all original documents including PG Degree mark sheets submitted by the petitioner at the time of his admission.

The State has issued a show cause notice in September 2021 against the petitioner as alleged that he has not reported for duty and has not joined Tamil Nadu Medical Service.

The petitioner Soundara Rajan completed his post-graduation (PG) and thereafter his Master of Chirurgiae in surgical gastroenterology between 2017 and 2020.

The bond executed by the petitioner contains an undertaking to the effect that he should serve the State for a period of two years (2020 - 2022).

The petitioner contended that there has not been any call for duty by the State, apart from a brief interlude of Covid duty between September and December 2020.