The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued notice to Union Health Minister JP Nadda on a plea seeking CBI inquiry into alleged irregularities and corruption at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
The notice was issued by the HC while hearing a petition seeking a CBI inquiry into various cases of irregularities and corruption in AIIMS raised by then anti-graft officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi.
A division bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice RS Endlaw also issued notice to the Central Vigilance Commission and Sanjiv Chaturvedi and asked them to file their response by April 22.
The public interest litigation (PIL), which is came up for hearing on Wednesday, has sought a revival of all cases in which action were initiated by Chaturvedi before he was sacked by then union health minister Harsh Vardhan in August last year from his post as chief vigilance officer of the AIIMS).
NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) in its petition contended that Chaturvedi started initiating action in the corruption cases related to various malpractices including “supply of dubious medicines by a private chemist shop, having influential political nexus, role of middlemen in making fake outpatient department (OPD) cards”.
The PIL filed by advocate Prashant Bhushan, also a member of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), asked Health Minister JP Nadda to recuse himself from all cases and from acting as a disciplinary authority, alleging that he “unfettered powers to influence the course of proceedings in all the corruption cases”.
Bhushan alleged that Nadda actively participated in dismantling the newly set up vigilance administration and halted all inquiries initiated by Chaturvedi by writing numerous letters to various central ministries from May 2013 to June 2014.
