By IANS,

New Delhi : Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss Thursday said there was no question of his resigning following the Supreme Court order reinstating P. Venugopal as director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and declaring the AIIMS amendment act "unconstitutional".

"There is no question of resignation because it was passed by the government and parliament. This is not a setback for us," Ramadoss told reporters as demands came in from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that he should quit office.

"We will take a decision after reading the judgment. There is no question of misleading parliament. It was decided by the government and then passed by parliament," he added.

Justices Tarun Chatterjee and H.S. Bedi declared "malafide and unconstitutional" the central government law fixing the retirement age of the AIIMS director at 65 years.

The bench said it was evident that the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, and the Post Graduate Institute for Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, (Amendment) Act, 2007, which limited the tenure of the directors of the two institutes to a maximum of five years or till they reach the retirement age of 65, was enacted with the sole purpose of targeting the cardiologist.

Ramadoss sacked Venugopal in November 2007 after parliament passed the law and it received President Pratibha Patil's assent.