No coercive action to be taken against protesting doctors if they resume duties, directs SC

After the Supreme Court’s hearing on Thursday, resident doctors’ associations at three major hospitals in Delhi called off their strike.

Aug 22, 2024 - 19:30

No coercive action to be taken against protesting doctors if they resume duties, directs SC

The Supreme Court on Thursday directed authorities not to take any coercive action against doctors protesting the rape and murder of a junior doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital if they resumed their duties, Live Law reported.

The court had on Sunday taken up the case on its own amid growing outrage about the crime. The 31-year-old trainee doctor was found dead at the medical institute on August 9.

At Thursday’s hearing, resident doctors from the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences in Nagpur told a bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra that protesting doctors were being marked absent by their hospital authorities.

The doctors were also not being allowed to appear for examinations, the counsel added.

Chandrachud then urged the doctors to return to work, saying that the protests would affect those who are in need of public health services. Patients get slots after waiting for several months in premier hospitals like the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences, he added.

“Let them all return to work,” Chandrachud said, according to Live Law. “How will the public health administrative structure run if they don’t resume work?”

Later during the hearing, the court said that doctors have expressed apprehensions about action being taken against some of them for protesting.

“We are expecting that in...