The Madhya Pradesh High Court has taken note of what appears to be gross misuse of authority for personal gains during the BJP regime. The notices have been issued to the dozen respondents including the Union of India, the state of Madhya Pradesh and the Indian Nursing Council.
The case relates to Dr Sudha Malaiya’s “exploits”. She is running several institutions illegally and the government officials are literally dancing to her tunes, according to the petition. Dr Sudha Malaiya is an influential BJP leader and is the wife of Jayant Malaiya, a powerful member of the Shivraj Singh Chauhan Cabinet. She is also a respondent.
The public interest litigation (PIL) has been instituted by Santosh Bharati, a journalist-cum-environmentalist of Damoh. The documents he has annexed with the petition in support of his allegations have been obtained under the provisions of the Right to Information Act (RTI). A division bench of the High Court, comprising acting Chief Justice RS Garg and Justice RS Jha, has given six week to the respondents to reply to the notices.
Dr Sudha Malaiya, according to the petition, registered a trust under the name of Vasudha Prakashan Nyas in Bhopal in October 1992 with the objective of promoting literary activities for the benefit of women. In 2000 she, as the chairperson of the trust, applied for a change of name of the trust and its objectives. Her application was allowed by the Registrar of Public Trusts in violation of the provision of section 9 of the Public Trusts Act, 1951. The name of the trust was thus changed to Ojaswani Samdarshi Nyas and its jurisdiction was extended from state-level to national-level.
In 2002, Dr Sudha Malaiya was appointed (by the NDA government at the Centre) a member of the National Commission for Women (NCW). She then resigned from the trust and Hemant Malaiya was made chairman in her place. However, she again became chairperson of the trust on completion of her term with the NCW. Thereafter, she concentrated on launching institutions.
Dr Sudha Malaiya is at present running as many as seven institutions for imparting education from nursery to higher education on “a small campus known as Malaiya Mills at Damoh.” She applied for taking over the girls’ hostel of the government Kamala Nehru College at Damoh for her private nursing college and the Collector of Damoh was only too happy to grant the permission. Besides, the only Working Women’s Hostel, run by the Municipal Council of Damoh, was also rented out to her for her nursing college and the inmates of the hostel were forced out.
According to the petition, Dr Sudha Malaiya forged documents, with the help of her family members, to show that she has the requisite land/accommodation for running the educational and nursing institutes and the officials concerned in the government of India, the state government, the Indian Nursing Council and the Mahakoshal Nurses Registration Council have “happily accepted” them.
The district hospital of Damoh was placed at Dr Sudha Malaiya’s disposal for her nursing college through a two-page Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), signed by then civil surgeon and chief superintendent of Damoh District Hospital, Dr Ashok Jain, and also by two witnesses but not by Dr Sudha Malaiya (the place for her signature blank).
The district hospital promised, through the MoU, to Dr Malaiya’s Ojaswani Institute for Nursing Science and Research the use of all its facilities for clinical training and teaching. The hospital further promised to allow the use of not only physical facilities but also patients for training of the institute’s students. The hospital was not to make any claim in case of any loss or injury caused to any property or person, including the patients of the hospital, by any student of the institute… and that “it will be presumed that the first party (institute) has indemnified in full and final to the second party (hospital) for any act or deed of the first party and its students as soon as this MoU is signed.”
The hospital was not to cancel or withdraw or postpone or rescind its permission to use any facility by the institute without prior concurrence and permission of the university/ state government. What was more, the MoU promised the institute to develop, change or alter its facilities as per the requirements of the institute’s nursing students preparing for the bachelor’s degree.
After Santosh Bharati obtained a copy of the MoU under the RTI (published in Current of October 20,2008), Dr Ashok Jain was shifted from Damoh. When Bharati again sought documents under the RTI, the new civil surgeon, Dr BR Agrawal, denied the existence of any such MoU but furnished a copy of another MoU, purportedly signed on January 1 this year and bearing signatures of the civil surgeon, as well as of Dr Sudha Malaiya and two witnesses, promising the same facilities as in the earlier MoU. The MoU was signed apparently on the directions of Dr Ashok Sharma, director of medical services. Dr Ashok Sharma’s missive to the Damoh civil surgeon, dated January 16, 2008, directs the Damoh civil surgeon to provide the facilities to Dr Sudha Malaiya’s nursing college “for the period 2007-8 and 2008-9.”
Dr Sudha Malaiya later opened another nursing college at Sagar and has been receiving “huge grants” for both the colleges. Her claim that her nursing college was affiliated to the Dr Hari Singh Gour University of Sagar has been debunked by the university in a letter, obtained by Bharati under the RTI.
The nursing college at Damoh has not fulfilled the conditions required by law, but the inspection team of the Indian Nursing Council has granted permission/recognition to the nursing college. The state government and the Municipal Council of Damoh have issued no-objection certificates on the ground that the Indian Nursing Council has already granted recognition.
Citing many more illegalities in the running of the institutions by Dr Sudha Malaiya, the petitioner has urged the High Court to call for the relevant records for perusal and order disciplinary action against the officials and other authorities for misusing their positions.