The Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) on Friday defended in the Delhi High Court the appointment of its new Director General (DG) saying he has the requisite work experience for the post.
IIMC made the submission before Justice Jyoti Singh who was hearing a plea challenging the appointment of the DG — Sanjay Dwivedi — on the ground that he did not have the minimum required experience of 25 years when he was selected for the post.
Dwivedi’s appointment to the post was announced on July 1 and he took charge of the office on Monday, July 13.
The counsel for the petitioner, Ashutosh Mishra, told the court that Dwivedi got a bachelors degree only in 1995 and his years of work experience has to be counted from then.
Therefore, he will have 25 years of work experience only by December of this year, but he was selected for the post much before that, the counsel said.
IIMC, represented by Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Vikramjit Banerjee, told the court that a bachelor’s degree was not a must to work in the field of media or films and the advertisement for the post said that work experience has to be in the fields of journalism/media/films and Dwivedi satisfies the criteria.
The ASG also questioned maintainability of the plea saying such a writ petition can only be filed as a PIL.
The judge asked both sides to make a compilation of the judgements dealing with such service matters or challenges to appointments and place it before the court by the next date of hearing on August 14.
The court said it will need to first satisfy itself whether the petition was maintainable.