AURANGABAD: The Bombay high court bench at Aurangabad on Thursday ordered the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) to conduct a departmental inquiry into the discrepancies in the attendance record of Dr Ashish Bhivapurkar, head of cardiovascular thoracic surgeon department at the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Aurangabad. The inquiry is to be conducted by officiating DMER director Dr Dilip Mhaisekar, the court said.
The bench Justice Ravindra Ghuge and Justice Sanjay Mehare termed the discrepancies as ‘very unfortunate’ and said the same could be the proverbial "tip of the iceberg in the state health department." The bench was hearing a PIL filed by Aurangabad MP Imtiaz Jaleel seeking filling up of vacancies in the state health department.
At a previous hearing of the PIL Jaleel had raised the issue of Bhavapurkar not regularly attending the GMCH or performing surgeries despite a huge monthly salary. The HC had then sought the surgeon's attendance details and had expressed its dismay over the surgeon not being a part of the hospital's biometric attendance system despite a state government resolution and guidelines of the Medical Council of India.
The bench observed, "Dr Ashish Bhivapurkar after being transferred to the Aurangabad, GMCH, resumed duty after 13 months. On some of the occasions, he has signed on the attendance register for all 30 days while at the same time he missed important meetings in the capacity of HoD."
The bench also observed that Dr Bhivapurkar has signed on the attendance register on Sundays, other public and national holidays like January 26 and August 15. It went on to express a strong reservation on certain pages of the attendance register wherein Dr Bhivapurkar first signed the register and later scratched them down. The bench directed the high court registrar to preserve a copy of the attendance record and in a sealed packet.
Additional government pleader Sujeet Karlekar told TOI, “We have submitted that the onus of enrolling oneself for the mandatory biometric attendance system and maintaining the same is purely on an individual.”
Jaleel had submitted a record citing that Dr Bhivapurkar was first transferred to Aurangabad GMCH in 2014 but he did not report for 11 months, before being retained back in Mumbai. The bench expressed their surprise after it found that this leave was approved as ‘extra ordinary leave’.
Jaleel told TOI on Thursday, “Dr Bhivapurkar was transferred to GMCH, Aurangabad second time on June 7, 2017 but he resumed in April 2018. During this period he challenged the transfer order before MAT, Mumbai where the state brought on record the discrepancies in his biometric record and physical record apart from not being available during emergencies and also not being regular to hospital.”
