With Dr Randeep Guleria's second extended tenure as the director of AIIMS, New Delhi ending on September 23, new names of two doctors have been recommended for the top job in the premier institute, sources said on September 20.

It has been learnt that the names of Dr M Srinivas, Dean of Employees' State Insurance Company (ESIC) Hospital and Medical College in Hyderabad, and Dr Sanjay Behari, Director of Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences & Technology, Trivandrum, have been shortlisted by the selection-cum-search panel headed by Union Health Secretary.

The two new names will now be placed before the Institute Body, the top decision-making body at the institute, on September 21 before being sent to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) for final approval.

Interestingly, neither Dr Srinivas nor Dr Behari had applied for the post, the sources told PTI on September 20.

Earlier in March, names Nikhil Tandon, head of the department of endocrinology; Rajesh Malhotra, chief of AIIMS Trauma Centre and the head of the department of orthopaedics; and Pramod Garg, professor in the gastroenterology department in the institute which were shortlisted by a search-cum-selection committee and subsequently approved by the Institute Body, the top decision-making body of the AIIMS, were sent to the ACC for approval.

The ACC headed by the prime minister on June 20 sought a wider panel of names for the post of director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

Following this, the names of MV Padma Srivastava, chief of Neurosciences Centre; Dr Balram Bhargava, former ICMR director general; and Dr Rakesh Aggarwal, director of Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research, Puducherry were discussed.

"Now names of Dr Srinivas and Dr Behari will be placed before the Institute Body tomorrow before being sent to ACC for final approval," a source said.

Dr Srinivas was a professor in the Department of Pediatric Surgery at AIIMS Delhi before he joined ESIC Hospital and Medical College in Hyderabad in 2016.

Dr Behari was professor and head of the Neurosurgery department at Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences Lucknow before he took charge as the director of Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences & Technology, Trivandrum in April.

The four-member search-cum-selection committee tasked with shortlisting names for the AIIMS director's post comprises the Union Health Secretary, the Secretary of the Department of Biotechnology, the Principal Scientific Advisor to the government, and the Delhi University VC.

The tenure of the incumbent Dr Guleria which was till March 24 was extended by three months. It was then subsequently extended by another three months.

Dr Guleria was appointed as director for a term of five years on March 28, 2017.