Court orders to submit biometric attendance of Dr Bhiwapurkar

Aurangabad, June 30:

Justice Ravindra V Ghuge and Justice S G Meher of the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court ordered the medical education department to file an affidavit in connection with the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by MP Imtiyaz Jaleel within a week on Wednesday. The bench also directed to submit biometric attendance in Dr Ashish Bhiwapurkar case. The next hearing will be held on July 5.

On behalf of the state government, Dr Sadhna Tayde, director, department of health services, Mumbai, has submitted an additional affidavit on June 28, 2021 regarding the time bound program (Road Map) for filling the medical vacancies in the State. State advocate general Ashutosh Kumbakoni said that the state government was very positive about filling the medical vacancies and also requested the medical education department to file an affidavit. Jaleel had earlier filed an affidavit in the High Court regarding Dr Bhiwapurkar's absence. In the first session of the hearing today, GMCH dean Dr Kanan Yelikar submitted an affidavit regarding Dr Bhiwapurkar's absence. MP Jaleel objected to the affidavit and requested to submit the attendance register to the high court. The High Court has taken serious note of MP Jeleel's argument and directed the public prosecutors to submit the attendance register at 2.30 pm. In the afternoon session, all relevant attendance papers of Dr Bhiwapurkar from April 2018 were presented before the court. The court examined the attendance sheet and other important documents for about an hour and 40 minutes and gave an opportunity to MP Jaleel to verify the same. MP Jaleel pointed out to the court that special arrangements were being made to protect all concerned in Dr Bhiwapurkar's case. He argued that the attendance papers prepared by Dr Bhiwapurkar with his own signature were objectionable. Government prosecutors pointed out that Dr Bhiwapurkar performed only 7 to 8 surgeries in a period of 9 months in 2019. MP Jaleel also requested that the record of biometric attendance be submitted to the court, while the High Court also mentioned in the order to submit the biometric attendance at the next hearing. In particular, the High Court expressed the view that there were discrepancies between the documents and the attendance sheets submitted today.