Kol doc rape-murder: SC to hear plea on Tuesday amid continuing strike by medics in West Bengal

PTI, Sep 16, 2024, 5:10 PM IST

The Supreme Court is likely to hear on Tuesday a case it has initiated on its own following the rape and murder of a resident doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata amid the ongoing protests by doctors in West Bengal.

The hearing assumes significance as resident doctors continue their strike despite the apex court’s directive to them to resume work by 5 p.m. on September 10 to avoid punitive action by the state government which had claimed that their absence from work had led to the death of 23 patients till September 9, the day the case was last heard.

In the meantime, the West Bengal government had on Monday invited the protesting junior doctors for talks “for the fifth and the final time” in order to end the impasse, two days after the dialogue between the government and them failed to take off over disagreement on live-streaming of the proposed meeting.

In an email to the protesting junior doctors, state’s Chief Secretary Manoj Pant asked them to reach Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s residence at Kalighat at 5 p.m. on Monday for the talks.

Banerjee visited the protest site on September 14 and extended an olive branch to the agitating doctors and invited them for talks which have not fructified yet despite her trying to assure them that their demands will be met.

The proposed meeting on Saturday fell through, with the protesters claiming that they were asked to leave “unceremoniously” after having made to wait for three hours at the gates of CM’s residence. The doctors had refused to enter Banerjee’s residence due to the government’s rejection of their demand for a live telecast.

As per the apex court web site, the suo-motu case is listed as the first item on Tuesday before a bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.

Amid the unrelenting protest by junior doctors and a massive public outrage, the CJI-led bench had on September 9 voiced concern over the absence of the “challan”, a key document forwarding the body of the junior doctor, who was raped and murdered at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital, for postmortem, from the records presented before it and sought a report from the West Bengal government.

It had also directed the protesting resident doctors to resume work to avoid adverse action by the state government.

The apex court’s direction followed an assurance by senior lawyer Kapil Sibal, who was representing the state government, that no action, including punitive transfers, shall be taken against the protesting doctors if they resumed work. The top court’s proceedings on Tuesday will be keenly watched in view of non-compliance of its direction.

On August 22, the apex court had ripped the Kolkata Police apart over the delay in registering an unnatural death case after the junior doctor’s body was found at the hospital, calling it “extremely disturbing”. It also questioned the time taken for completing the necessary procedural formalities.

As street protests raged in Kolkata and many towns and cities across the country, the top court had constituted a 10-member National Task Force (NTF) to formulate a protocol for ensuring the safety and security of doctors and other health care professionals.

Terming the incident as “horrific”, the apex court had excoriated the state government over the delay in filing the FIR and allowing thousands of people to vandalise the state-run facility.

The medic’s body with severe injury marks was found inside the seminar hall of the hospital’s chest department on August 9.

A civic volunteer was arrested in connection with the case the following day.

On August 13, the Calcutta High Court had ordered transfer of the probe from the Kolkata Police to the CBI, which started its investigation on August 14.