The Allahabad High Court has asked the Uttar Pradesh government to take action by 20th July on a purported video of the former Kanpur medical college principal making remarks against Tablighi Jamaat members and Muslims.
The bench comprising of Chief Justice Govind Mathur and Justice S D Singh gave the direction on a plea by New Delhi-based civil society Indian Muslim for Progress and Reforms (IMPAR) who sought action against former principal Arti Lalchandani of Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Memorial Medical College, Kanpur. Subsequently, the court directed the government to submit its action-taken-report on the next date of hearing i.e. on 20th July. However, the state government’s standing counsel requested the court to grant him some time to apprise the court of the action taken against her.
A sting-operated video clip went viral on the Internet wherein Dr. Lalchandani, the principal of a medical college and a senior government servant was seen stereotyping the entire Muslim community as ‘terrorists’ and agreeing to kill all the Muslim patients by administering (poisonous) injections in them. After the controversy, she was transferred to Directorate General of Medical Education in Lucknow.
The petition sought for the court’s direction to the state government to take disciplinary action against her.
(This news has been written and submitted by Mr. Yogesh Sharma during his course of internship at B&B Associates LLP. Mr. Yogesh is a third-year law student at Chandigarh University, Gharuan, Mohali.)
