Delhi HC seeks Centre's response on appointments to ESIC panel

The Delhi High Court today sought response from the Centre on a plea seeking quashing of the appointments to a panel of the Employee State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) on the ground that it was in violation of the law.
A bench of Justice Manmohan issued notice to the Ministry of Labour and Employment and newly-appointed ESIC member Dr Purshottam Lal and asked them to reply within four weeks while posting the matter for hearing on November 14.
The court was hearing a petition filed by Indian Medical Association (IMA) challenging the appointments to ESIC panel on the ground that it has always been represented in ESIC since its formation.

The petition, filed through lawyer Nitesh Jain, alleged the appointments to the panel were made "in complete ignorance" of Section 4(h) of the Employee State Insurance Act.
"Section 4(h) of ESI Act lays down that two persons representing medical profession have to be appointed as members of ESIC after due consultation with an organisation of such practitioners recognised for this purpose.
"The appointment was made in sheer contravention of the provisions of the ESI Act and abuse of the powers conferred by it as the main provisions have been ignored and not looked into," it alleged.

On April 20, 2012, the Ministry of Labour and Employment sent a letter to IMA regarding reconstitution of the ESI Corporation and asked it to nominate persons to represent it.

IMA, on October 20, 2012 clarified that unless the number of seats of representation of IMA on ESIC are increased, IMA would be represented by Dr Vinay Aggarwal, who had been previously nominated.
Later, when it was informed that a nominated member from the Medical Council of India, instead of IMA, was being considered as a member of the ESI Corporation, the IMA sent a representation to the Labour Ministry against it.
The representation, however, was ignored, it said.