The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday directed the State government to recruit healthcare staff for the mini clinics through the District Health Society alone and under no circumstance involve external agencies in the recruitment process. Any appointments via the outsourcing mode will stand cancelled, the court said.
A Division Bench of Justices M.M. Sundresh and S. Ananthi took cognisance of the State’s submission that made it clear that the recruitment would be made only through the District Health Society. It had proposed to recruit the healthcare staff from the same locality, taluk and district for the services where such clinics would be established, the State said.
The court was hearing the public interest litigation petition filed by advocate G.V. Vairam Santhosh of Madurai. The petitioner said that he did not dispute the policy decision taken by the government but had an issue with the mode of selection of the healthcare staff. He said that an external agency was involved which was contrary to the existing norms. The petitioner apprehended that reservation policy would not be followed in staff recruitment. The State informed the court that the staff nurses would be recruited in accordance with the National Health Mission norms. The recruitment of healthcare staff would be temporary in nature keeping in mind the present scenario, the government said.
Taking note of the submissions made in the case, the judges observed that the State should make all endeavours not to extend the initial period of the recruitment and if at all the State government wanted to make the recruitment beyond the temporary period of one year, then the regular procedure must be followed.
With regard to the implementation of reservation policy, the court directed the State government to follow the policy as far as possible depending on the availability of qualified candidates. See to it that people hailing from different categories are looked into for recruitment, the court said and disposed of the petition.
