A section of medical fraternity here has raised questions on the legality of the Madhya Pradesh Governor's office ordering the postponement of the Devi Ahilya Vishwa Vidyalaya's (DAVV) Senate meeting, thereby delaying the appointment of the university representative to the Medical Council of India (MCI).

The university has not been represented in the council for the past five years. The move by Governor has also affected the appointment of the representative to the Dental Council of India (DCI). Moreover, it has come in way of execution of Supreme Court directives to fill the vacant seats of MCI, delivered in an appeal 599600 (2001-02) - the next hearing of which is scheduled in February.

In a letter to the DAVV Vice-Chancellor Dr Bharat Chhaparwal, G K Shrivastava, the Additional Secretary to the Governor (on behalf of Dr Bhai Mahaveer), had pointed out at the vacancies in the DAVV's Faculty of Medicine, which, in turn, had created vacancies in the Senate - as one of the reasons for the postponement. Around 42 per cent seats are vacant in the Faculty, he pointed out.

University sources said that this reason for postponing the Senate meeting seems to be in defiance of the Section 58 of Madhya Pradesh Vishwa Vidyalaya Adhiniyam, 1973.

This Section says, ``No act or proceedings of any authority, committee or body of University shall be invalid merely by reason of: (a) any vacancy in or defect in the constitution thereof; or (b) any defect in the election, nomination or appointment of a person acting as a member thereto; or (c) act or proceedings of any irregularity in its procedures affecting the merits of the case.''

The Governor also pointed out that the list of DAVV's Faculty of Medicine was released late, as per the complaint of Dr V K Sainee, Dean, Faculty of Medicine. ``The claims of DAVV that the list of members of the Faculty of Medicine was released in advance (30 days before the meeting) is suspicious, in view of a letter from the Dean, pointing out that the latest list was released on January 3, 2003, five days before scheduling the Senate meeting,'' said Shrivastava, on behalf of Governor Dr Bhai Mahaveer.

However, the rules suggest that the faculty members who are on roll (and not on contractual appointment) are eligible for a position in the Senate. Most of the seats in the faculty are filled with contractual appointments and majority of the vacancies are of Governor-nominees.

Further, not all the members of the faculty are in the Senate. Currently the three faculty members in the Senate include - Dr V K Sainee, Dr Vinod Bhandari and Dr V S Bhatia (his membership ceased to exist as per Section 64 (2) of the Adhiniyam).

According to the Section 4 (b) of the Indian Medical Council rules, 1957, only the people present during the Senate meeting are entitled for contesting for representation to MCI. This is clearly in contrast to the Governor's claim that vacancies in the Faculty would affect the elections, as not all Faculty members can contest.

The Governor's office highlighted that the inclusion of the physiotherapy stream into the Faculty seems `prima facie against rules' - with a specific reference to Dr Bhandari. The physiotherapy course was included into the Faculty of Medicine in the year 1997, through Madhya Pradesh ordinance No 32.