KOLKATA: The Calcutta high court on Tuesday stayed the suspension of 59 junior doctors of Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital after the August 9 rape and murder of their colleagues, lawyers for the suspended medicos said. Six of them were expelled as well.
“The court passed the stay order after we argued that the suspension and expulsion orders were in complete violation of natural justice,” lawyer Arkaprava Sen, who represented the suspended junior doctors said.
The order was passed by the single bench of justice Kausik Chanda. The court will next hear the case on November 11.
“The court said only the state government has the authority to take a decision in this matter,” Sen added.
The hearing took place a day after chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who is also in charge of the health department, raised questions about the suspension orders.
The punitive actions were taken by the institution’s administration around mid-August.
Members of the RK Kar hospital’s resident doctor’s association had sought punitive action against the 59 junior doctors, alleging that these junior doctors intimidated their colleagues under instructions from the institution’s former principal Sandip Ghosh.
Ghosh is currently in jail after his arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation for allegedly destroying evidence in the rape and murder case.
Junior doctors from RG Kar and other state-run medical colleges repeatedly claimed during their two-month-long agitation that a “threat culture” institutionalized by a section of senior officials and their classmates paralyzed Bengal’s healthcare and health education system.
“The resident doctor’s association of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital wanted to be a party in this case. This was not allowed since this association is not a registered body,” Kallol Basu, the association’s lawyer, told the media.
Saurav Das, one of the junior doctors who moved court, said: “The hospital authorities cannot suspend so many of us in this manner. Only a handful of junior doctors are guilty of these charges. We were not even heard. There was no proper inquiry.”
“We were ready to join duty but a section of junior doctors continued the strike. We are ready to face even a judicial inquiry,” Das added.
Asfaqullah Gayen, one of the faces of the junior doctors’ agitation, claimed nobody was falsely implicated.
“The hospital authorities property reviewed the charges and the action was taken following guidelines of the medical council,” Gayen said.
Mamata Banerjee questioned the suspensions for the first time on Monday while holding a televised meeting with the agitating junior doctors.
Countering the agitators, she said decisions to penalize students charged with extortion, corruption, ragging etc. cannot be taken by college authorities unless the allegations are reviewed by the state health department.
In this context, she questioned the suspension of the students of RG Kar Medical College.
“The state must probe charges such as these. Those facing allegations also have the right to speak,” Banerjee told the 17-member delegation of the junior doctors on Monday.
“This, too, can be called a threat culture,” she added.
On Tuesday, the state health department notified the formation of an 11-member task force that will look into all allegations at hospitals and medical colleges across Bengal. As decided by Banerjee and the agitators on Monday, the task force will be headed by the chief secretary and include junior doctors as well.
