Gurugram: Medical Superintendent of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS), Rohtak, Dr Kundan Mittal was due to retire on 30 June. He didn’t.
Two months before his retirement, a letter reached the Haryana Chief Minister’s Office. Written by Manish Kumar Grover, a senior BJP leader from Rohtak and former cooperation minister, it recommended a three-year extension to Dr Mittal.
PGIMS, Rohtak, functions under the University of Health Sciences (UHS), Haryana.
The letter did not dwell much on Dr Mittal’s medical credentials. It praised his politics. “Dr Mittal is an exceptionally efficient administrator and a highly skilled doctor,” Grover wrote. “More importantly, he has been a pillar of support for our party workers and grassroots volunteers. He has always gone out of his way to provide all possible assistance to our workers, ensuring that the pro-people policies of our government are felt on the ground at PGIMS Rohtak. His continued presence in this role is vital to safeguard and extend the interests of the party within the university and the region.”
Grover ended the letter with a personal appeal: “I personally request that he be granted a three-year extension after his superannuation on 30.06.2026 in the public interest.”
The Grover gambit worked. A handwritten note from the Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, addressed to the Additional chief Secretary, Medical Education and Research, dated 15 May, records the Chief Minister’s response: “CM has desired that this representation be examined and put up for his orders within 15 days.” The note was marked by the Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, to the ACS (MER).
Three months later, the UHS executive council approved the extension by a resolution dated 6 August.
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High court steps in
The extension has now run into trouble. Dr Anil Pannikker, a rival claimant to the post, challenged it before the Punjab and Haryana High Court. On 16 September, a bench of Justice Harpreet Singh Brar stayed the extension.
The court’s order was blunt about what the recommendation letter contained. “Perusal of Annexure P-3 clearly indicates that while recommending the name of respondent No.5 for re-employment, it was referred that respondent No.5 has provided assistance to party workers and grassroots volunteers and such considerations are extraneous to the appointment to a statutory office,” the court noted.
The order also flagged a rule that the extension appeared to have bypassed altogether. “Rule(2)(d) of the University Statutes expressly mandates that no person above 58 years of age should be appointed to the post of Medical Superintendent,” the court recorded, adding that the Executive Council had approved the re-employment “despite having no power to relax the statutory age condition”.
The court has stayed the 3 August order and the 6 August resolution until the next hearing, fixed for 4 March next year. It has, however, allowed the university to appoint a medical superintendent afresh, following due process.
‘What’s wrong with that?’
Once it surfaced online, the letter went viral. It has embarrassed a government that has repeatedly pitched itself as a ‘bina kharchi bina parchi (no cost, no recommendation)’ administration, one that claims transfers, postings and favours are no longer decided through political patronage.
Opposition leaders were quick to seize on the contradiction. Jannayak Janta Party leader and former deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala and Haryana Congress spokesperson Tarun Tewatia both posted about the letter on X, questioning the government’s claims of a sifarish-free administration.
Contacted by ThePrint, Grover did not deny writing the letter. “I am a people’s representative. People keep coming to me for recommendations. If someone is benefited through my recommendation, what’s wrong with that?” he said.
Grover said the extension was in line with existing government policy, under which government doctors could be re-employed until the age of 70. Dr Mittal, he pointed out, was only 58. “In case he didn’t qualify for the reemployment, the government would have rejected his claim,” Grover said.
He also stood by his description of Dr Mittal as a “pillar of strength” for party workers and grassroots volunteers. Before anything else, he said, Dr Mittal was a party worker, and it was his duty to look after the interests of those who support the party.
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)
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