PUNITA K SODHI Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The background to these two writ petitions by the same Petitioner is more or less the same. The reliefs sought are different. Writ Petition (Civil) No. 367 of 2009 challenges an Office Order dated 17th June 2008, issued by the Lady Hardinge Medical College (=LHMC'), a hospital functioning under the Directorate General of Health Services (=DGHS'), Government of India whereby a committee was constituted to enquire into the complaint of sexual harassment made by the Petitioner against Respondent No.6 Dr. K.P.S. Malik. The writ petition also challenges the consequential proceedings of the said Committee including the report submitted by it on the Petitioner's complaint.

(2.) The second petition, Writ Petition (Civil) No.12708 of 2009, seeks the quashing of an Office Memorandum (OM) dated 25th April 2008 issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (hereafter =the MHFW'), Government of India, Respondent No. 1 in the writ petition, constituting a committee of external experts (hereafter =Experts Committee') with a view to substantiate the allegations and counter-allegations between Dr. K.P.S. Malik (Respondent No. 3 in the said writ petition) and the Petitioner. A challenge is also laid to the Report of the said Experts Committee. The Petitioner's case

(3.) The Petitioner states that she is an MBBS and MS (Eye) from Delhi University with an excellent academic record. She is presently working as an Assistant Professor in Ophthalmology under the MHFW posted at the LHMC. The Petitioner states that she has three distinctions and three subject awards in the MBBS course, 52 international indexed publications and one Indian indexed publication. The Petitioner states that after completing her MBBS and MS, she joined as a Pool Officer under the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (=CSIR') at the Safdarjung Hospital on 1st January 2001. She had initially been working under Dr. R.S. Nanda, the Head of Unit-II of the Safdarjung Hospital. She states that in November 2001 she was suddenly shifted to Unit-I under Dr. K.P.S. Malik.