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Court seeks Centre's reply on Venugopal's appointment

NEW DELHI: The Centre was on Wednesday pushed into a tricky situation after the Delhi High Court ordered it to file a reply on a PIL challenging the appointment of the AIIMS director P Venugopal.

A Division Bench headed by Justice M K Sharma also granted two weeks time to Venugopal to file his reply on the PIL filed by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL).

However, senior counsel Arun Jaitley appearing for Venugopal during his brief sumbission alleged that the PIL was motivated and inspired by the Government.

The court's direction to the Centre to file its reply on the PIL assumes significance as the Government would now be in an embarrassing situation of defending the appointment of Venugopal as it cannot be expected to denounce its own decision.

However, if the Government defends the appointment, it nevertheless has to be done with a pinch of salt, as Venugopal was recently involved in a public spat with the Union Health Minister A Ramadoss, forcing the Government to terminate his services before the court intervened to stay the move. .- PTI

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