Announcement of regular director for State-run Jayadeva institute kept in abeyance

The appointment of a regular director for the State-run Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research that was scheduled to be finalised on Thursday has been kept in abeyance following a stay obtained by one of the aspirants. 

Front runners

Sources said B. Dinesh, Professor of Cardiology at Jayadeva’s Mysuru unit, along with two other professors from Jayadeva Bengaluru — A.C. Nagamani (Cardiology) and B. Girish (Cardiothoracic Surgery) — are among the front runners for the post.

The other aspirants include Divya Prakash M., Professor and head of Cardiology at Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI), and six other Jayadeva professors — V. Kumaraswamy (Cardiology),  Prasanna Simha M. (Cardiothoracic Surgery), Satish Govindaiah (Cardiothoracic Surgery),  Venugopal Ramarao (Cardiothoracic Surgery), Giridhar Kamlapurkar (Cardiothoracic Surgery), C.G. Prabhushankar (Anaesthesia), and Jayaprakash Shenthar, who formerly headed the Department of Electrophysiology at Jayadeva. Of these, Dr. Govindaiah did not attend the interview on Thursday.

Selection panel

The selection committee comprised Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash Patil and two external subject experts — S. Harikrishnan, Professor of Cardiology at Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Trivandrum and Nitish Naik, Additional Professor of Cardiology at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi with B.L. Sujatha Rathod, Director of Medical Education as member secretary.

Although the stay notice was sent to the Medical Education Department on Wednesday night, the selection committee completed the interviews on Thursday as the stay is only on the announcement of the new director.

Process completed

“We completed the selection process and the results have been kept in sealed covers. Ten of the 11 candidates, who had applied, attended the interviews. One of the applicants, Dr. Shenthar, who also attended the interview, has approached the court on the grounds that the bylaws were not amended before calling applications for the post of the director. But, the due process has been followed after the institute’s governing council approved the amendments,” Dr. Rathod told The Hindu.

The matter is slated to come up for hearing on September 10 and till then the announcement has been kept in abeyance, she said.

Of the 11 candidates who applied for the post of Jayadeva director, three doctors have already superannuated. However, as the upper age limit for eligibility was not mentioned in the notice inviting applications, there is no bar on those who have retired to apply, Dr. Rathod said.

Jayadeva institute has been functioning under the administration of in charge director K.S. Ravindranath since January last year after former director C.N. Manjunath completed his extended tenure on January 31, 2024.