Your inaction will shut medical colleges: Bombay High Court raps Maharashtra

Observing that Maharashtra, said to be a progressive state, should have considered filling up vacant posts in government medical colleges on its own, the Bombay high court on Tuesday rejected an application filed by the government seeking six months' time to take a policy decision to fill up over 500 professorial posts.

A division bench of justices Abhay Oka and AK Menon said, "Filling up professors' vacant posts, is it not part of your development plan? By not taking any steps you are likely to close down medical colleges."

The court made these observations while hearing a suo motu public interest litigation based on a newspaper report highlighting the fact that hundreds of posts in government medical colleges were left vacant.

Last year, the court had directed the government to take steps to fill up the vacancies by January 31, 2015. However, when the matter came up for hearing on Tuesday, the government sought six months' extension. The court was irate after going through the application in which it found that no steps had bene taken till now to comply with an earlier court order.

There are 14 medical colleges in the state, and of the 1,434 posts for assistant professors, 862 are vacant. The court has now directed the government to take steps to comply with its order by April 1, when it would hear the case again.