RG Kar Rape Case: SC directs hospitals to regularise doctors' absence during protests

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed hospitals, including AIIMS New Delhi, to regularise the unauthorised absence of doctors who were part of protests against the rape and murder of a doctor at RG Kar Hospital, Kolkata.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar took note of the submissions of a doctors’ body that some hospitals had regularised the absence of the doctors following its August 22, 2024 order but a few others, including AIIMS Delhi, decided to treat the period as leave of absence.

"We deem it appropriate to clarify that if protesting workers had joined work post the Supreme Court order then their absence shall be regularised and not be treated as absence from duty. This is issued in peculiar facts and circumstances of the cases and is not laying down any precedent,” the CJI said.

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The lawyer appearing for the body said the decision to treat the protest period as leave may create trouble for some of the medical PG students. Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, said as the case was non-adversarial, the hospitals would abide by the top court's directions.

AIIMS Kalyani, PGI Chandigarh regularised doctors' attendance

Mehta said AIIMS, Delhi, decided to treat the period as leave of absence availed by the doctors. “By an earlier order, it was stated that no coercive step would be taken against the protesting doctors for protests till the date of the order. Pursuant to this some of the AIIMS such as Kalyani and Gorakhpur and the PGI Chandigarh have regularised the absence. However some other institutes have treated the said period as if doctors were on leave," said the bench.

On August 22, last year, the bench made an impassioned appeal to the protesting doctors across the country , asking them to resume work. Observing "justice and medicine" couldn't be stopped, it directed no coercive action would be taken against doctors once they resumed work. The heinous crime triggered nationwide outrage and prolonged protests in West Bengal . The bench was hearing the suo-motu case over the rape and murder of a trainee doctor in the Kolkata hospital.

On January 20, a Kolkata trial court awarded convict Sanjay Roy "life term imprisonment till death" in the case . The body of the post-graduate trainee doctor was found in the hospital's seminar room on August 9, last year following which the Kolkata police arrested civic volunteer Roy the next day in connection with the crime.