New Delhi: Overruling the Parliament amendment for the first time, the SC on Thursday came out with historic verdict by striking down the AIIMS Act of 2007.

The Supreme Court ordered the government to reinstate eminent cardiologist P Venugopal as director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and said that his ouster from the elite institution was illegal.

A bench of Justices Tarun Chatterjee and H S Bedi also declared as "malafide and unconstitutional" the union government's law that fixed the retirement age of the AIIMS director at 65 years.

The bench said it was evident that the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi and the Post Graduate Institute for Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh (Amendment) Act, 2007, which limited the tenure of the directors of the two institutes to a maximum of five years or till they reach the retirement age of 65, was enacted with the sole purpose to target the cardiologist.

Parliament amended AIIMS Act in August 2007 and Dr P Venugopal said that the amendment was done to remove him from his post.

This ruling is a big setback for Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss, who many believe had formulated the amendment and got it passed in November last year resulting in the removal of Venugopal from his post.

Source : Agencies