Delhi High Court seeks govt reply over appointment in institute

New Delhi: The Delhi high court has sought response of the Delhi government on a plea seeking removal of a senior official of a heritage institute on the ground that his appointment was allegedly illegal.

The high court bench issued notice to the official, against whom the allegations were made, the Delhi government and the Delhi Institute of Heritage and Research Management, and listed the matter for further hearing on February 9.

The petition filed by Vivek Kumar Srivastava, who claimed to be a social worker, alleged that the official had faced allegations of sexual harassment and there were several occasions when he had misbehaved with female students.

The plea, filed through advocate Samrendra Kumar, claimed that the official was suspended due to allegations of sexual harassment and he was reinstated with full wages in 2010 by the lieutenant-governor who quashed the disciplinary proceedings against him.

It sought to declare the official’s appointment as void ab initio and a direction to the institute to recover all the monetary benefits he was given.