Punjab and Haryana High Court seeks report from PGIMER Director on 166 vacant faculty positions

Punjab and Haryana High Court bench, presided over by Justice Sandhawalia, observed that as per an October 2019 report submitted by the PGIMER, a total of 117 posts were lying vacant. Read here to know more details.

While hearing a suo motu plea started by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the court has sought a status report from the Director of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), on the steps being taken to fill vacant posts at the institute. 

The bench of Justice GS Sandhawalia and Justice Lapita Banerji said, “The director, PGIMER, Chandigarh, shall take active steps to start filling up the posts at the earliest," as reported by Hindustan Times. The bench sought the affidavit by January 6.

The high court bench observed that as per an October 2019 report submitted by the PGIMER, 117 posts were lying vacant. “It has now been pointed out that more posts have fallen vacant and at present, out of the 732 posts, only 566 faculty posts are filled up and, therefore, 166 posts still remain vacant. The sole purpose as such of the present litigation is to ensure that all the posts are filled up to improve the efficiency of the teaching faculty,” the bench said.

The data recently tabled in the Lok Sabha stated that PGIMER has filled only 1,790 vacancies over the period of five years. These also include the vacancies filled at the PGI Satellite Centre in Sangrur. PGIMER has nearly 7,300 sanctioned posts, including those of teaching and non-teaching doctors, nurses, paramedics, lab technicians and security. As per the data, PGIMER has been unable to clear the backlog of over 1,700 vacancies in recent years.

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