President Pratibha Patil on Friday signed the AIIMS (amendment) Bill, even as the Supreme Court said it would hear on Monday the petition filed by AIIMS director P Venugopal challenging the legislation.
The Bill fixes the age of retirement of the AIIMS director at 65. With the legislation, that was passed by both Houses of Parliament on Wednesday, becoming law, the government can now sack Venugopal any time as the director had turned 65-years-old this July.
The Opposition had opposed the Bill in the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha.
The presidential assent came exactly two days after the Bill, named the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (Amendment), was passed by the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
The Bill, introduced in Lok Sabha in the Monsoon Session of Parliament, invited criticism of the BJP and the AIADMK and they alleged that health minister Anbumani Ramadoss was using Parliament to settle his personal scores with Venugopal.
Earlier on the day, a Bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice KG Balakrishna agreed to hear the petition on an urgent basis following a request from Venugopal?s counsel.
In the petition, Venugopal had alleged that the AIIMS Bill is aimed only at removing him from the service. He requested the court to nullify the Act as it was ?unconstitutional, arbitrary and discriminatory.?