Hearing a writ petition, filed by the Vivekananda Medical Mission, a division bench of the Orissa High Court comprising Justice Vineet Saran and Justice BR Sarangi stayed the order of the Director of Medical Education and Training (DMET) directing to close operation theatre (OT) and the canteen in the Vivekananda Hospital premises at Bhubaneswar.
Appearing for the petitioners, senior advocate Jayant Das, assisted by lawyers N Sarkar and Aditya Das, submitted that the DMET, Orissa lacked the competence and jurisdiction under the provisions of the Clinical Establishments (Control & Regulation) Act, 1990 and the Clinical Establishments (Control & Regulation) Rules,1994, to pass the impugned order dated July 18, 2016. Hence pending adjudication of the writ petition, the impugned order is liable to be stayed, he argued.
The matter had been adjourned to today to enable the Additional Government Advocate (AGA) to obtain instructions and submit as to the power under which the DMET passed the impugned order under the above referred Acts.
On Thursday, the AGA submitted that instructions were not available at present and prima facie the DMET had no power to pass the impugned order under the two Acts.
Upon hearing the further submissions of advocate Das, the Court directed that considering the facts of the case and keeping in view that no provision of law cited in the impugned order nor has the AGA been able to say under which provision of law, the opponent party has sealed the operation theatre and the canteen of the petitioners. it is provided that till the next date the DMET order will remain stayed, the bench said and posted next hearing to August 23 with a further direction to the opponent parties to file counter affidavit by August 18.
The petitioners have been granted three days thereafter to file any rejoinder affidavit.