New Delhi, July 10: Two days after he was sacked by AIIMS director P. Venugopal, the institute’s registrar V.K. Gupta is back in office, with the blessings of the health ministry.

The ministry this evening accused Venugopal of issuing a “factually incorrect notice” to dismiss Gupta and reinstated him.

The pro-Venugopal lobby in AIIMS saw the move as “another attempt” by health minister Anbumani Ramadoss, with whom the institute’s director has been engaged in a spat, to re-establish his control over administrative matters. However, Venugopal may have only himself to blame.

On Saturday, the AIIMS director had issued a notice to Gupta asking him to “relinquish duties with immediate effect” for not paying doctors for the 17 days they were on strike in May.

The health ministry used the same notice to bring back Gupta.

The notice, a copy of which is with The Telegraph, states: “This order is being issued with the approval of the competent authority.”

The “appointments and removals” section of the AIIMs Regulations Act, 1954, says the institute’s governing body is the competent authority to take disciplinary action against Class A employees like the registrar. Otherwise, the institute’s president ? Ramadoss in this case ? can take “necessary action”.

Venugopal, however, did not seek approval either from the governing body ? which has not met since his dismissal ? or from Ramadoss, the health ministry said. “The notice is thus factually incorrect,” a ministry source said.

Gupta today made an official representation of his case before the ministry, following which the decision was taken to reinstate him.

The AIIMS Resident Doctors Association called the ministry’s decision a “provocation”. “He (Ramadoss) wants to keep needling Dr Venugopal and us doctors. He knows he is wrong and will be defeated in court,” said Rajesh Nehra of the association.