Madhya Pradesh Governor Dr Bhai Mahaveer on Tuesday postponed the elections of Devi Ahilya Vishwa Vidyalaya representative to the Medical Council of India (MCI) `till further orders' on grounds of `legal shortcomings' in the University Senate meeting scheduled on January 8. The Governor's decision to postpone the meeting indefinitely was conveyed by his Additional Secretary, G K Shrivastava, to Dr Bharat Chhaparwal, Vice-Chancellor (V-C), DAVV, in a letter faxed to the DAVV office here, just minutes before the office closed on the eve of the meeting.

Notably, apart from the delay in the elections to MCI, this sudden move from the Governor has put off the elections of DAVV representative to the Dental Council of India (DCI) - another agenda of the proposed Senate meeting.

The elections had led to high drama between two groups of doctors in the city who had explored every possible connection to maintain one-up status.Two prospective candidates for MCI - Dr V S Bhatia, Assistant Professor, MGM Medical College and Dr Vinod Bhandari, Director, Bhandari Hospital and Research Centre - for the MCI representation had started their campaigning by questioning each others eligibility to contest.

Dr Bhatia, a few days back, came out openly against Dr Chhaparwal accusing him of manipulating procedures to favour Dr Bhandari. The latter is a reader in an institution teaching physiotherapy - and in no way is qualified to contest for the elections, he claimed. The statement created an uproar following which Dr Bhatia bit his own words.

In a strange move, the DAVV on January 7, threw out Dr Bhatia from the Senate thereby nullifying his candidature on grounds that `he was promoted to the post of Associate Professor, MGM Medical College'. Dr Bhatia was inducted into the Senate under the quota of Assistant Professors, said the university letter (vide Admn 1 (1) - 2003/33), adding that his membership ceased to exist as per the Section 64 (2) of the Madhya Pradesh Vishwa Vidyalaya Adhiniyam, 1973, after his promotion.

Sources said that Dr Bhatia, along with Dr D K Taneja, Dean, MGM Medical College, and Dr V K Sainee, Dean, Faculty of Medicine (DAVV), camped at the Governor's office at Bhopal, on the same day, and managed to get Shrivastava to fax the order of postponing Senate meeting to the V-C's office.

The order also refers to the complaints received by the Governor regarding the inclusion of physiotherapy stream into the DAVV medical faculty, wherein Dr Sainee had objected to the induction of Dr Vinod Bhandari into the faculty. The Governor noted that this step by the DAVV was `prima facie against rules'.

This inclusion was brought to effect by an amendment in Number 10 of University Bylaws by a DAVV Coordination Committee on December 4, 2002. Governor Dr Bhai Mahaveer' order states that the minutes of this meeting were not approved yet, stated Shrivastava, on behalf of the Governor.

With this development, the election of University representative to MCI is delayed by over 30 days (as a notice of this period has to be delivered before calling a Senate meeting).

Notably, there has been no representation of the DAVV in the MCI for the past five years. The MCI had written a letter to the DAVV - referring to instructions of the Apex court to fill the vacancies of council members at the earliest - asking the university to start the process at once.