New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday slammed the Centre for seeking removal of a judge from the bench hearing the AIIMS case, saying it would send a 'wrong message'.
A Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Vijender Jain and Kailash Gambhir expressed displeasure over the Government seeking removal of Justice Anil Kumar from the case relating to institute director P Venugopal on the ground that the judge had prejudged the issue, and so it should not be heard by him.
"You can't quarrel with the judge and by doing so, you will be sending a very wrong message," the court observed. The Bench directed the Government to delete the prayer seeking the removal of the judge.
The court fixed November 20 as the next date of hearing in the case in which it issued notice to Venugopal on an appeal filed by the Central Government and the institute challenging a single-judge Bench order barring any adverse action against him.
Earlier, the Union Health Secretary filed an affidavit at the High Court, saying that the judge hearing the Venugopal dismissal case be barred from the case. The case should be transferred to some other court, the affidavit pleaded.
Venugopal's advocate Arun Jaitley challenged the affidavit as a contempt of court. The division bench asked Health Secretary P K Hota to amend his affidavit and get back to the court by November 20.
The division bench was hearing the Health Ministry's appeal against the single judge bench order to restrain the Health Ministry from expelling Venugopal as the director of AIIMS.
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