Supreme Court stays Delhi HC order quashing appointment of NCISM chief

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday suspended an order setting aside the appointment of the chairperson of National Commission for Indian System of Medicine holding him ineligible for office.

A bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Manmohan issued notice to National Commission for Indian System of Medicine (NCISMC) and others on the appeal filed by Vaidya Jayant Yeshwant Deopujari.

The court stayed the high court's order after noting Deopujari was set to demit office on Tuesday and he should not be deprived of pension and other benefits.

The bench said it would consider if holding PhD degree would be treated as Post Graduate qualification prescribed for certain posts.

Deopujari challenged the June 6 order of the Delhi High Court, which allowed two petitions against his appointment as the NCISMC chairperson.

The commission's counsel informed the high court that the process of selection and appointment of the chairperson had commenced following which it directed the expeditious completion of the process.

The high court also asked for its observations to be taken into account during the selection process.

The petitions in the high court were filed by Ved Prakash Tyagi, former president of the erstwhile Central Council for Indian Medicine, and Dr Raghunandan Sharma.

The Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions had issued a circular on June 9, 2021 appointing Deopujari as the commission's chairperson.

The petitioners alleged that Deopujari could not be appointed as the chairperson of the commission as he does not hold a postgraduate degree, mandated under the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine Act, 2020 (NCISM Act).

The high court held Deopujari possessed a PhD degree whereas the requisite degree was MD or any other equivalent master's degree in any discipline of Indian System of Medicine.

The PhD degree which was awarded to him by Pune University did not presuppose acquisition of lower qualification (Master's Degree in Ayurveda), it said.

"We have no hesitation to hold that the expression 'Post-Graduate Degree' occurring in Section 4(2) of the NCISM Act, 2020 in the context it has been used would mean a Master's Degree (MD) in any discipline of Indian System of Medicine which the respondent does not possess and, therefore, he lacks the requisite qualification for being appointed to the office in question," the high court said.

Deopujari, the high court noted, was admitted to the PhD course without undergoing the master's degree course, soon after graduating in Ayurveda (BAMS).

The high court opined every degree awarded by an university after graduation couldn't be termed as "post-graduation qualification" for the reason that in the domain of higher education in our country "post graduate degree" acquired a special meaning and significance and post-graduate degree means a master's degree like MA, MSc, MD, LLM or MEd.

The high court said the NCISM Act emphasised on the functions of the commission to maintain high quality and high standards of education in the Indian System of Medicine and, as a result, phrases such as "head of a department" and "head of an organisation" were to be understood and construed in the context in which Parliament passed the Act.