HYDERABAD: The Hyder­abad circuit bench of the Sindh High Court on Friday ordered Sindh government to denotify reappointment order of Sindh Institute of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences’ (SIOVS) executive director Prof Dr Khalid Talpur, and fill the post after observing all formalities under relevant law.

The order passed on a constitutional petition filed by Dr Arshad Lodhi through his lawyers Sarmad Hani and Jawad Ahmed Qureshi said the respondent executive director was free to compete with other candidates for the post.

The bench comprising Justices Adnanul Karim Memon and Adnan Iqbal Chaudhry had heard the parties on Dec 14 and reserved the verdict which it announced on Friday, allowing the petitioner’s request for declaring the reappointment of the respondent as illegal.

High Court orders observance of all legal formalities

The petitioner had cited Sindh government functionaries, including chief secretary Sindh, registrar of Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences and SIOVS executive director, Dr Khalid Talpur, as respondents.

“Primarily, the appointment in public sector is a trust in the hands of public authorities and it is their legal and moral duty to discharge their function as a trustee with complete transparency as per requirement of law so that no person, who is eligible to hold such post, is excluded from the process of selection and is deprived of his right to appointment in service,” read the order.

He had prayed the court to declare the Nov 26, 2020 notification for the reappointment of Mr Talpur as executive director as illegal and mala fide, and that the office had been vacant since the respondent’s retirement, which would be filled after advertisement.

The petitioner said that the institute was established under SIOVS Act 2013 and under July 22, 2013 notification Dr Talpur, who was serving as professor in ophthalmology department, was appointed as its director.

The respondent retired on Dec 31, 2020 after attaining the age of superannuation but prior to his retirement, the SIOVS Act was amended and Dr Talpur was reappointed as executive director for four years which ended till December 2024 in violation of the directions of Supreme Court, he said.

The judgment said: “We have noticed that while section 11 of the Act 2013 confers powers on the board of directors to appoint executive director for the institute, it does not expressly empower it to reappoint executive director for another term”.

“Songs of praise showered by counsel for the respondent and additional advocate general Sindh are meaningless when his appointment had been made on contract for four years without a competitive process,” read the order.

Advocate Yousuf Leghari, who represented the respondent, quoted examples of Dr Adeeb Rizvi and Dr Rahim Bux Bhatti who were still serving in their respective departments after retirement.

AAG Sindh Abdul Jalil Zubedi argued that the court lacked jurisdiction in the case. The SIOVS’s board of directors had exercised its power and continued services of the respondent in public interest, he said.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2021