Just what the SC ordered: Doctors get back to work

Hours after the Supreme Court ordered them to resume work “forthwith” and called for restoration of normalcy in hospitals within three days...

Hours after the Supreme Court ordered them to resume work “forthwith” and called for restoration of normalcy in hospitals within three days, doctors and medical students in Delhi and Kolkata, protesting OBC reservation in premier education institutes, called off their nearly three weeks old strike.

The Supreme Court, in a conciliatory gesture, directed that disciplinary proceedings, notices and departmental actions initiated against doctors should also be withdrawn within three days of their resuming work.

“If strikes are permitted to continue, it would serve no result. Patients’ right to get treated is inseparable from the right under Article 21 of the Constitution. Damage done to a patient sometimes is irretrievable,” said the bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and Lokeshwar Singh Panta.

After a general body meeting today, doctors decided to resume duties from tomorrow to avert a confrontation with the Supreme Court. They said they would continue to support the anti-quota agitation.

The Health Ministry threatened to serve termination notices to striking doctors by 9 am tomorrow if they didn’t return to work.

“We are hopeful that they will call off their strike by tonight and in the eventuality they do not join duty, tomorrow 9 am we are sending termination notices,” Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss told reporters here.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, responding to a letter from Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, assured him that the Centre was committed to OBC reservation.

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“I have urged all concerned to take necessary steps as expeditiously as possible to fulfill our common commitment to the OBCs,” the PM said in his letter, a copy of which was released to the press today.