SC Orders Regularisation of Doctors’ Protest Absence

by The_unmuteenglish

New Delhi, 29 January 2025: The Supreme Court directed hospitals, including AIIMS Delhi, to regularise the “unauthorised” absence of doctors who participated in protests last year against the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

A bench led by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna, along with Justice Sanjay Kumar, addressed concerns raised by a doctors’ body that while some hospitals complied with its August 22, 2024, order to regularise the absence, others—such as AIIMS Delhi—treated it as leave.

“If protesting workers resumed duty after the Supreme Court order, their absence should be regularised and not marked as leave,” Chief Justice Khanna stated, adding that the decision was based on the case’s specific circumstances and did not set a precedent.

The doctors’ body’s counsel cautioned that categorising the protest period as leave could create issues for medical postgraduate students.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, assured the court that hospitals would follow its directions, describing the case as non-adversarial.

He noted that AIIMS Delhi had classified the period as leave, whereas institutions such as AIIMS Kalyani, AIIMS Gorakhpur, and PGI Chandigarh had regularised the absence.

Meanwhile, in the RG Kar case, a Sealdah sessions court on January 20 sentenced Sanjay Roy, the sole convict in the rape and murder of the trainee doctor on August 9 last year, to rigorous life imprisonment until the end of his natural life.

The incident had sparked nationwide outrage and widespread protests, disrupting medical services across India.

Related Articles