Why PG med seats scam shouldn’t be transferred to CBI, asks HC

Chennai: The first bench of Chief Justice MN Bhandari and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy observed this on hearing an appeal petition filed by Directorate of Medical Education’s (DME) former selection committee secretary G Selvarajan.

The appellant sought direction to quash an order passed by Justice P Dhandapani directing the chief secretary to stop pension and all other pay benefits to Selvarajan for filling 90 out of 113 PG management quota medical seats in the private medical colleges without conducting the counselling in 2020.

When the appeal matter was taken up for hearing on Monday, CJ MN Bhandari held that is a serious case and directed the parties to the original petition to seek instructions as to why the matter should not be referred to the CBI.

The bench further asked the government pleader what action has been taken by the government against the appellant as per the February 25 order of the single judge as two months are going to pass now.

“Has an FIR under the direction of the Single Judge been registered or not and has the Chief Secretary taken action to initiate the inquiry against the appellant,” the bench asked the government advocate.

The court also wanted to know how the appellant had continued in the service despite his tenure was not extended when the alleged incident had occurred. “We directed the government pleader to clarify the circumstances in which a government order was issued to ratify two months when an order for extension of service of the appellant was not existing. He was yet discharging the duties during the intervening period of two months,” the court noted and listed the matter on April 21.

The single judge passed the order against Selvarajan on disposing of a petition filed by two doctors named Dr Geetanjalai and Dr Santhoshkumar. The CBCID which investigated the case submitted that the secretary to the selection committee alone was the prime reason for the malpractice and faced several hindrances even to file an FIR.