Patna High Court on Wednesday directed the Centre to explain why the Jai Prakash Narayan All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Patna cannot be operational by October 2 this year, the deadline set by it a year ago.

Hearing a PIL filed by the Council for Protection of Public Rights and Welfare, a division bench comprising Justice Prakash Chandra Verma and Justice Aditya Kumar Trivedi directed the joint secretary of Union health ministry to file an affidavit by July 18, explaining as to why the hospital cannot function from October 2 this year. The bench also asked the joint secretary to tell the court why the director of AIIMS-Patna was holding the charge of the two other proposed AIIMS at Bhubaneswar and Rishikesh and why the financial advisor of Bhubaneswar had been given the charge of Patna and Rishikesh AIIMS.

Expressing its displeasure over the slow pace of construction work of AIIMS-Patna, the court directed the joint secretary to file an affidavit giving details of foreign tour of the project director and other officials of Patna-AIIMS. The court said B.L. Kashyap, the company entrusted with the construction work, and the project director seemed to be in hand-in-glove and that is why the project was being delayed.

Brajesh Kumar, the counsel for the petitioner, submitted before the court that the inauguration of the hospital might get delayed by a year.