Women cannot be stopped from doing night duty, it is the government's responsibility to provide them security; CJI also took Sibal to task.

Posted on 18th Sep 2024 by rohit kumar

The Supreme Court on Tuesday strongly objected to the notification of the West Bengal government in which it was said that women doctors should refrain from night duty and their duty should not exceed 12 hours. The court said that women be stopped from doing night duty. No woman can be told that you cannot do night duty.

 

Doctors, pilots, armed forces, everywhere there is night duty. Women doctors are ready to work in every situation and they should work in every situation. Women do not want concessions but equal opportunities. They cannot be stopped from night duty. The state must provide them with security.

 

The Supreme Court took suo motu cognizance in this matter.

The apex court told the West Bengal government that it should correct its notification. Apart from this, the court also raised questions on the West Bengal government hiring security personnel on contract for security in hospitals. These comments and instructions were given by a bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud on Tuesday during the hearing in the case of brutality and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata. The Supreme Court is hearing this matter on its initiative.

 

Sibal assured the bench.

The court told senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who was advocating for the West Bengal government, that you cannot tell women not to do night duty. This will be harmful to their career. The state must provide them with security. Women are not asking for any special concession, they want equal opportunities. Sibal assured the bench that nothing will happen that will affect the equality of women.

 

The court raised questions on the safety of women.

However, he said that not doing duty for more than 12 hours should not be made mandatory. On this, the bench said that the duty hours should be reasonable for all doctors. The court also raised questions on the government's decision to hire security personnel on contract to ensure the safety of doctors in the hospital. The Chief Justice said that the issue here is the safety of doctors. How can the contract security personnel be trusted? The accused of brutality with the doctor is a person from Civil Defence.

 

Request to doctors to return to work

The court said that the state police should be deployed for security. Sibal said that they are also thoroughly investigated. Apart from this, police and CRPF will be deployed there. To improve the security system, Sibal requested the junior doctors to return to work and also assured the court that if the doctors returned to work, no punitive action would be taken against them.

 

Recording in pen drive

 

During the hearing, the issue of giving only 27 minutes of CCTV footage to CBI also came up, but Sibal said that apart from this, recording in a pen drive has been given to CBI. Regarding the postmortem challan form, Sibal said that its use has been stopped since 1997, although the state government follows the standard operating system issued by the Government of India and sends requisitions. The issue of postmortem challan was raised in the last hearing.