Sacked members protest against RGUHS Syndicate meeting

The syndicate meeting of the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS), on Tuesday, witnessed protests and chaos with the university being accused of ignoring the orders issued by the High Court to reinstate syndicate members who were removed by the BJP government.

Five members nominated by the then Congress government to the university Syndicate were removed soon after Dr K Sudhakar took over the medical education portfolio.

Challenging this, the members, who are doctors by profession, approached the court and the court directed the university to reinstate them.

Despite the directions from the court in June 2021, the university conducted the Syndicate meeting. This was questioned by the five members whose memberships were supposed to be reinstated.

Condemning the university authorities for convening meetings without reinstating their nominations or by inviting them to the meeting, the five members staged a protest outside the Syndicate hall.

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Speaking to DH, Dr Umesh Babu, one of the five members, said, “This leads to contempt of court and we are going to challenge the decisions taken in the syndicate meeting.”

“We staged a protest demanding that the university authorities cancel or postpone the meeting and reinstate our nominations as per the court direction. But they refused to do so and continued with the meeting. We are going to file contempt cases against the university authorities,” Babu said.

Soon after taking charge of the medical education portfolio, Sudhakar had issued an order appointing new nominees to the RGUHS syndicate by removing the five members nominated by the Congress government.

As they were left with eight months of their term, the members challenged this in the High Court in June.

The court issued an order, directing the university to restore the memberships of the old members and quashed the new nominations.

Dr Jayakara B S, vice chancellor, RGUHS, said “We have written to the government, as the government is the appointing authority.”