RG Kar Hospital Rape and Murder Case: Supreme Court Says, No Coercive Action Against Protesting Doctors If They Resume Their Duties

Today (August 22), the Supreme Court (SC) of India, while hearing the suo motu case on the RG Kar Medical College Hospital rape and murder case, passed an order protecting the doctors from coercive actions for protesting to date if they resume duties. The bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said, “An apprehension has been expressed by the doctors that some of them are being proceeded against with respect to protests that happened in the past. We are expecting that in compliance with the assurance given to the Court, the doctors will join the duties. Let there be no coercive action against doctors after they come back to work after the date of today's order for any protest that happened before the date of today's order.” During the proceedings, a counsel appearing for the resident doctors of AIIMS Nagpur submitted before the top court that the protesting doctors were marked absent and not allowed to participate in exams. Hearing this, the CJI appealed to the protesting doctors to return back to work and said that their absence would affect the people in need of public health services. He observed, “Let them all return to work...we will pass some general order, please rest assured that once doctors resume duties, we will prevail upon authorities to not take adverse actions. How will the public health administrative structure run if they don't resume work?” 

Earlier, an order passed by the SC urged the protesting doctors and other medical practitioners to return to their duties. The order reads, “We request all the doctors who are abstaining from work across the country to resume the work at the earliest. Above all the abstention from the work of doctors affects those segments of the society who need medical care the most from accessing day-to-day services. The abstaining doctors and medical professionals can stand assured that their concerns are receiving the highest concern from the Supreme Court of India…” While hearing the matter today, the CJI expressed concern regarding the hectic work schedule of resident doctors. He said, “We are deeply concerned about the inhuman working hours of resident doctors across the country. Some doctors work 36-hour shifts. The committee appointed should look into streamlining the on-duty hours of all doctors. 36 or 48-hour shifts are just inhuman!” 

Moreover, Senior Advocate Vijay Hansaria and Senior Advocate Devadatt Kamat appearing for the Delhi Medical Association and an organization for doctors respectively requested the SC to include representatives of resident doctors in the NTF (National Task Force). In response, the CJI said that the inclusion of representatives of all associations in the NTF would affect its working but assured that the NTF would hear all stakeholders to ensure efficient national protocol is introduced to create safe conditions at the workplace.