New Delhi, June 5 (IANS). The Supreme Court has initiated contempt proceedings against the acting director of AIIMS New Delhi for not following its order in a case related to DNA test report. The court has directed him to appear in person on July 7.
Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Justice R. Mahadevan’s bench expressed displeasure that despite clear instructions from the court, the reply was not filed by the AIIMS director. Instead, a deputy secretary of AIIMS filed an affidavit.
The Supreme Court said that in the order given on April 16, a personal explanation was clearly sought from the director. In such a situation, filing the reply by any other officer on their behalf cannot be accepted.
During the hearing, the lawyer appearing for AIIMS said that at present there is no permanent director in the institute and the present officer is only handling the responsibility as acting director, however the court rejected this argument.
The bench said that whether an officer holds a permanent post or an acting post, he has to discharge the responsibilities of his post. The court said that it is not in favor of giving benefit of doubt to the acting director in this matter and prima facie it constitutes a case of contempt.
After this, the Supreme Court made AIIMS Acting Director Dr. Nikhil Tandon a party in the case and issued a contempt notice against him. The court directed that they appear in person on July 7 at 12 noon and submit their reply.
While hearing the main aspects of the case, the Supreme Court also took into consideration the DNA report of the Forensic Medicine and Toxicology Department of AIIMS. The report concluded that the DNA profile of the person concerned matches the DNA profiles of Bimal Kishore and Pratibha Kashyap, proving that Bimal Kishore is his biological father.
In view of the findings of the DNA report, the Supreme Court said that there is no need to give separate decision on the pending applications related to it and they were disposed of.
However, the matter will be listed for consideration on July 7 only in the presence of the acting director and his reply to the contempt notice.
The Supreme Court has directed to make copies of the DNA report available to all concerned parties. Besides, an order has also been given to hand over the original report to the petitioner’s lawyer and present it before the concerned High Court, so that further action can be taken there as per law.
–IANS
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