Patients suffering, protests may be contempt of court, warns SC

But Justice Pasayat began the day today saying that the ongoing strikes “might be contempt of court.”

The bench then followed this up with a strong order: “It has come to our notice that notwithstanding the clear indication given by this court that in view of the fact that issues relating to reservation for OBCs are being examined by this court, agitations, protests and strikes in relation to this issue should be immediately called off, more surprisingly, the contrary seems to be happening. This is a very serious matter…It is ultimately people who want to be treated at the hospital (who) got affected…”

The bench also asked Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanian, who is representing the Centre, to file a memo on the status of the “agitations, strikes and protests” by tomorrow when it listed the case for further hearing.

The case came up for its first hearing yesterday with two PILs, one by Supreme Court advocate Ashoka Kumar Thakur and the other by Shiv Khera, on which the bench issued notices to the Centre saying that the “(OBC quota) policy is capable of dividing the society on caste basis and as a matter of fact it has to be adjudicated upon.”

It gave the Centre eight weeks to reply and another six weeks for the petitioners to file “rejoinders, if any.”

Meanwhile, in Kolkata, the High Court directed the West Bengal government to ensure that the strike by junior doctors as part of the nationwide anti-quota stir did not hinder the treatment of patients.

A vacation bench, comprising Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and Justice S P Mitra directed the Director of Health Services, West Bengal, to submit a report by June 9 on what suitable steps the government had taken to ensure unhindered treatment of patients.

r.venkataraman@expressindia.com