Doctors Strike in MP: High Court gets strict on strike, says- why are doctors on strike without permission?

Highlights

Due to the doctors’ protest, the operations of many patients got postponed. Doctors are angry against the Kolkata incident. Dean and Junior Doctors Association of Gandhi Medical College issued notice.

Naiduniya Representative, Jabalpur. The High Court has taken a tough stand on the doctors’ strike demanding action in the case of rape and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata.

In the hearing on Friday on the petition challenging the strike, the High Court has asked why the doctors in Bhopal have gone on strike without the permission of the court despite the clear order given earlier? The division bench of Acting Chief Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva and Justice Vinay Saraf has issued notice to the Principal Secretary of the Health Department, Dean of Gandhi Medical College and Junior Doctors Association, GMC Bhopal and sought a reply in this regard.

The court has said that immediate notice should be sent through WhatsApp and email. The matter will be heard again on Saturday. Public interest petitioner Anshul Tiwari, a resident of Narsinghpur, has challenged the doctors’ strike in the High Court.

Senior advocates Sanjay Agarwal and Abhishek Pandey argued on behalf of the petitioner. He argued that public interest litigations were filed on the same subject in the year 2023 as well. The High Court had given clear instructions in those cases that doctors cannot go on strike without the permission of the court. The court had also said that court permission is necessary even to go on a token strike. Despite this, doctors are going on strike across the state, due to which the medical system is getting badly affected.

Countrywide protests after Kolkata incident

In fact, doctors are protesting across the country against the rape and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata on August 8. In Bhopal and Jabalpur too, hospitals have decided to keep OPDs closed. Only emergency services will be available in private hospitals. After AIIMS in Bhopal, junior doctors of Hamidia Hospital have stopped working from 12 pm on Thursday night.

In Indore too, junior doctors are only seeing emergency cases. Due to the strike, the condition of health services in most government hospitals has started deteriorating. Patients are lining up for treatment. Pathology tests could not be done.