In a significant ruling on Wednesday, the Supreme Court mandated that hospitals, including AIIMS New Delhi, should regularize the unauthorised absences of doctors who had participated in protests following the tragic rape and murder of a doctor at RG Kar Hospital in Kolkata. The bench, led by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar, responded to the appeals by a doctors’ body concerning the treatment of these absences across various institutions.
During the hearing, it was highlighted that while some hospitals had followed the Court’s previous order from August 22, 2024, and regularized the absences, others like AIIMS Delhi had opted to consider the protest period as leave of absence. This discrepancy led to concerns among medical PG students about the potential implications on their careers and education.
Chief Justice Khanna clarified the Court’s stance: “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,” ensuring that the directive was tailored to this specific situation without setting a general legal standard.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, affirmed that the hospitals involved in the dispute would comply with the Supreme Court’s directions. He noted that while AIIMS, Delhi, and some other institutions had initially treated the protest period as a leave of absence, other facilities like AIIMS Kalyani, Gorakhpur, and PGI Chandigarh had already regularized the absences.
The protests were sparked by a heinous incident last year, where a post-graduate trainee doctor was found murdered in RG Kar Hospital’s seminar room on August 9. The Kolkata Police arrested civic volunteer Sanjay Roy the following day in connection with the crime, and he was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment by a Kolkata trial court on January 20.
