With the High Court quashing the appointment of Prof Samia Rashid as principal Government Medical College (GMC) Srinagar, State government set the process rolling for selection of a new principal for the medical college on ‘regular basis’ by writing to establishment cum selection committee regarding the requirement.
Principal secretary to Government, health and medicaleducation, Atal Dulloo said that establishment cum selection committee of theState has been communicated the “urgent requirement” for a newprincipal following directions by the court. “We have written to the Committeeto begin the process of selection for a new principal for the medical college.It is expected to start soon,” he said. He added that a meeting with thecommittee was in the offing. “We are following Court directions and a newprincipal on regular basis would be selected soon,” he said.
He further said that the selection would be made on thebasis of merit-cum-seniority. “Principal’s is a selection post and both meritand seniority are taken into consideration together,” he said.
The High Court had quashed the appointment of Prof SamiaRashid as principal GMC Srinagar on 14 March and directed concerned authoritiesto place relevant records regarding the decision before the StateAdministrative Council. The directions had been passed in the case of Dr JavedChaudhary, who had contested appointment of Prof Rashid claiming he was thesenior-most candidate and therefore most eligible for the appointment.
On 3 May, Government had produced an order directing Prof.Kaiser Ahmed Koul, head of the pediatrics department of GMC Srinagar, to takeover as officiating principal till further orders.
An official in health and medical education department saidthat the process for appointing new principal for the medical college will becompleted within two months as Prof Koul is set to retire this June. “The chairwill fall vacant again in June and Government would want to avoid the situationin such a scenario,” he said.
Meanwhile Prof Koul took over as the principal on Saturday,this being his second stint on the post. He was appointed as principal GMCSrinagar in December 2015 after Prof Rafeeq Ahmed Pampori resigned from thechair in protest against Government decisions that were ‘deteriorating theinstitution’. His previous stint lasted over a year.Prof. Rashid had been appointed as principal medical college in April2017 by State cabinet headed by then Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, based onthe recommendations of establishment cum selection committee. The committee hadrecommended five candidates, the senior most faculty members of GMC for thepost – Prof Javid Chaudhary, Prof Kaiser Ahmed (then In-charge Principal), ProfParvez Ahmed Shah (HoD Medicine), Prof Showkat Jeelani (HoD Surgery) and ProfSamia Rashid (Medicine).