Days after the Bombay High Court vacating the stay on publishing the results of the interviews conducted by UPSC for the post of Deputy Drug Controller of India (Dy DCI), the Union health ministry has appointed five deputy drug controllers at the CDSCO headquarters in Delhi.

Out of the five new appointments, Dr S Eshwar Reddy is the only officer who has been selected for the post of deputy drug controller from the CDSCO headquarters in Delhi. Three of the new faces are from Andhra Pradesh drugs control department---Vaishali, Chandrashekharan and Venkateshwarlu. Lolita is the fifth new Dy DCI, who was deputy director of J&K drugs control department. While Dr Reddy has already taken charge as Dy DCI, others yet to reach Delhi to assume charge, sources said.

The appointment of Dy DCI became controversial when the union health ministry directed the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) in March this year to conduct interviews for the post of Dy DCI as per the new  Recruitment Rules (RR) framed by the ministry last year. Even as the UPSC was conducting interviews, some senior health ministry officials including Dr DK Chauhan, assistant drugs controller, Mumbai Port, challenged the ministry's decision to appoint the Dy DCI as per the new RR which the officials contested that it was not in consonance with Rule 49(A) and 50(A) of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act (D&C).

Hearing the petitioners, the Bombay high court in March this year sent notices to both the union health ministry and the UPSC barring them from publishing the results of the interviews till the pendency of the case. The UPSC had conducted interviews for the post of Dy DCI from March 23 and 28 this year.

After hearing both the parties, the Bombay High Court early this month vacated the stay on publishing the results of the interviews conducted by the UPSC for the post of Dy DCI, paving the way for the health ministry to make the appointments.

Interestingly, even though the Bombay High Court has vacated the stay, the issue is not completely out of legal tangle as another case related to the issue is pending in Madras High Court which is yet to come up for hearing.