Supreme Court To Hear PIL Seeking Deployment Of Security Personnel At Government Hospitals For Safety Of Doctors

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a recent PIL seeking a direction to the central government to deploy uniformed security personnel at every government hospital to ensure the safety of doctors.

A vacation bench of the Supreme Court, comprising Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Surya Kant, agreed to list the case for June 18.

The development has come after Advocate Alakh Alok Shrivastava moved the Supreme Court recently seeking protection for doctors in the wake of strikes called by doctors across the country to protest the attack on a doctor in West Bengal.

The PIL has also sought a direction to the State of West Bengal to take stringent action immediately against those who assaulted a junior doctor in Kolkata’s NRS Medical College and Hospital.

Earlier, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had criticized the doctors’ agitation and urged them to resume work, but this sparked off protests in other Kolkata hospitals and spread to other parts of the country.

After the matter reached the Calcutta High Court last week, it had urged the West Bengal government to take measures to resolve the grievances raised by the striking doctors.

The court had also appealed that doctors take up a reconciliatory approach in the larger interest of their patients.

Calcutta High Court Chief Justice TBN Radhakrishnan had reminded striking doctors of the 'Hippocratic Oath’ which they take, to ensure the welfare of all their patients.

However, the court refused to grant any interim relief in the PIL and the matter in the Calcutta High Court is scheduled to be heard on June 21.