HC upholds relief to ex-NIMS worker, dismisses institute’s appeal

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court rejected an appeal filed by the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) in Hyderabad involving its former deputy registrar, K Vinodhar.

A division bench dismissed NIMS’s appeal against an earlier order that had gone in Vinodhar’s favour.

The dispute began in November 2001, when NIMS accused Vinodhar of misleading senior officials while preparing official documents. He was accused of adding the words ‘legal assistant’ after the job titles of assistant registrar and assistant finance controller to get a higher salary.

Following an inquiry, NIMS made him retire before his normal retirement age. However, he was later brought back into service.

The dispute also involved a period of 1,569 days, from June 12, 2002, to September 27, 2006. NIMS had refused to count these days as part of his service. This meant that the period would not be considered when calculating his salary, increments and retirement benefits.

Vinodhar approached the court, seeking to have this period counted as part of his service.

The High Court ruled in his favour and directed NIMS to count the 1,569 days as duty. It also ordered the benefits he was entitled to, including pending salary, increments and pension benefits.

NIMS then approached the court again, asking it to cancel the order. The institute claimed that Vinodhar had not disclosed that he had earlier withdrawn another petition related to the same dispute.

However, the court rejected NIMS’s request. The institute then filed an appeal before a division bench.

The division bench said there was no reason to interfere with the earlier order. It observed that NIMS should have raised its allegations about fraud and hiding information during the earlier review proceedings.

Since the institute had not challenged the order rejecting its review request, that decision had become final, the bench said.

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