The Supreme Court will decide next week whether to accept former judge AM Ahmadi’s resignation from the post of chairman of Bhopal Memorial Hospital Trust.
The Supreme Court (SC) will decide next week whether to accept former judge AM Ahmadi’s resignation from the post of chairman of Bhopal Memorial Hospital Trust (BMHT).
Ahmadi is facing public anger over his 1996 judgment which watered down the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder to death by negligence, which carries a punishment of two years imprisonment. Ahmadi had sent his resignation last year to then Chief Justice of India (CJI) KG Balakrishnan.
Informed sources say a bench headed by present CJI Kapadia may also consider whether the trust, registered in India on August 1, 1998 for a term of eight years, should be dissolved. The apex court had only finalised the list of trustees, which included medical experts, bureaucrats and public representatives.
Ahmadi’s controversial judgment attracted attention in June, after a trial court in Bhopal gave mild sentences to eight accused in the gas tragedy.
When this correspondent tried to contact Ahmadi, his secretary said, “My Lord doesn’t want to talk to any media person. He wouldn’t talk on the Bhopal tragedy. The matter is sub judice.” The secretary said this even though Ahmadi had revealed that he had urged then CJI Balakrishnan to accept his resignation.
It is learnt that then Union health minister Ambumani Ramadoss had rejected in 2007 Ahmadi’s request for turning the hospital into a medical college.
In a recent development, the Centre has in an affidavit rejected BHMT’s plea that the trust be dissolved and the hospital taken over by it. The hospital, meant for the poor, was set up under the apex court’s directions 12 years ago.
The government says health is a state subject so the issue falls in the domain of the Madhya Pradesh government. However, a group of ministers (GoM) formed to look into the claims of victims, have examined whether the government could take control of the modern multi-speciality hospital.
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