Supreme Court: In the instant suo motu matter concerning the rape and murder of a trainee doctor in R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata, the 3-Judge Bench of Dr D.Y Chandrachud, CJ., J.B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, JJ., on 9-9-2024, while perusing the status reports filed by the CBI and West Bengal Government in the matter, issued the following important directions
Mass Abstentions of Doctors: Taking note of mass abstentions from work of the resident doctors of Medical Colleges and Hospitals across the State for 28 days, resulting in severe disruptions in the healthcare system, the Bench considered the status report filed by the Health Department of the State of West Bengal and directed the State Government to take necessary steps to create confidence in the doctors that their concerns regarding their security and safety are being duly attended to.
To ensure this, the Court directed that all the respective District Collectors and Superintendents of Police shall take stock of the situation and ensure by the next hearing that necessary conditions have been created for ensuring the safety and security of all doctors in Government Medical Colleges and Public Hospitals, including-
(i) provision of separate duty rooms for male and female personnel;
(ii) availability of toilet facilities for male and female personnel; and
(iii) installation of CCTV cameras.
Resumption of Duties: To create a sense of confidence amongst the doctors, the Court directed that if the doctors report for duty on or before 5 PM on 10-9-2024, then no adverse disciplinary action shall be adopted by the State of West Bengal.
The Court also cautioned that if there is continued abstention of doctors from work despite the above facilities which have been directed to put in place, there may be a likelihood of adverse action being taken in future. “The resident doctors cannot be oblivious of the needs of the general community whom they are intended to serve and they should return to work within the time indicated above”.
Doctors’ Safety; Setting up of CCTVs and Attendant facilities: Taking note of the State Government’s status report, wherein it was stated that funds have been sanctioned by the State of West Bengal for setting up additional CCTV cameras in Government Medical Colleges and Hospitals and for carrying out necessary work towards creating other attendant facilities for doctors; the Court directed that the work shall be continuously monitored by the District Collectors along with the Superintendents of Police.
If any further complaint is received regarding lack of safety or security, such complaints shall be promptly attended to by the Superintendents of Police by making suitable arrangements.
Social Media: The Court directed that all social media posts circulating photographs of the dead body of the deceased shall forthwith be removed to ensure the privacy and dignity of the deceased.
Investigations: Taking note that the investigation is still in progress, CBI was directed to file a fresh status report by the next date of hearing.
The Court also directed that a copy of “Challan for use when a dead body is sent for examinations” (PRB Form No 54 — Vide Rule 282, WB Form No 5371) duly filled in shall be produced before the Court on the next date of listing.
The matter has been listed for 17-9-2024.
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[In Re: Alleged Rape And Murder Incident of a Trainee DoctorIn R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata and Related Issues, 2024 SCC OnLine SC 2488, decided on 9-9-2024]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For Petitioners: Mr. Sanjay R Hegde, Sr. Adv.; Mr. Omanakuttan K. K., AOR; Ms. Rambha Singh, Adv.; Mr. Akhilesh Kumar Mishra, Adv.; Mr. Ankit Tiwari, Adv. Mr. Shahrukh Ali, Adv.; Mr. Tanay Hegde, Adv.;
For respondents: Mr. Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General; Mr. Kanu Agrawal, Adv. Ms. Swati Ghildiyal, Adv. Mr. Arkaj Kumar, Adv. Mr. Arvind Kumar Sharma, AOR Mr. Mukesh Kumar Maroria, AOR Mr. Kapil Sibal, Sr. Adv. Dr. Menaka Guruswamy, Sr. Adv. Mr. Sanjay Basu, Adv. Ms. Astha Sharma, AOR Mr. Nipun Saxena, Adv. Ms. Anju Thomas, Adv. Ms. Aparajita Jamwal, Adv. Mr. Sanjeev Kaushik, Adv. Ms. Mantika Haryani, Adv. Mr. Shreyas Awasthi, Adv.Mr. Utkarsh Pratap, Adv. Ms. Pratibha Yadav, Adv. Ms. Ripul Swati Kumari, Adv. Mr. Bhanu Mishra, Adv. Ms. Lihzu Shiney Konyak, Adv. Mr. Lavkesh Bhambhani, Adv. Ms. Arunima Das, Adv. Mr. Devadipta Das, Adv. Ms. Mehreen Garg, Adv. Mr. Sachin Jain, Adv. Mr. Ajay Agarwal, Adv. Mr. Hardeep S Sodhi, Adv. Mr. Vishal, Adv. Mrs. Subhadra Dwivedi, Adv. Mr. Rajiv Ranjan Dwivedi, AOR Mr. Shiv Mangal Sharma, A.A.G. Mrs. Abhinandini Sharma, Adv. Ms. Shalini Singh, Adv. Ms. Saubhagya Sundriyal, Adv. Ms. Nidhi Jaswal, AOR Ms. Haripriya Padmanabhan, Sr. Adv. Mr. Nishant Kumar, AOR Ms. Trisha Chandran, Adv. Mr. Gaurav Prakash Pathak, Adv. Mr. Ashutosh Anand, Adv. Mr. Siddharth Batra, AOR Ms. Archna Yadav, Adv. Mr. Rhythm Katyal, Adv. Mr. Chinmay Dubey, Adv. Ms. Shivani Chawla, Adv. Mr. Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, Sr. Adv. Mr. Arupnath Bhattacharya, Adv. Mr. Samim Ahammed, Adv. Mr. Supratik Sarkar, Adv. Mr. Tapas Maity, Adv. Mr. Sidhartha Sankar Mondal, Adv. Mr. Sudipta Dasgupta, Adv. Mr. Arnav Sinha, Adv. Mr. Avnish Kumasr Sharma, Adv. Mr. Ramendra Mohan Patnaik, AOR Mr. Anup Kumar, AOR; Mr. Sachin Singh Dalal, Adv. Mr. Akshat Singh, Adv. Ms. Himani Sharma, Adv. Ms. Aparajita Singh, Sr. Adv. Ms. Vrinda Bhandari, AOR Ms. Pragya Barsaiyan, Adv. Ms. Anandita Rana, Adv. Ms. Vanshita Gupta, Adv. Ms. Meera Kaura, AOR Mr. Tejas Patel, Adv. Ms. Tanushree Bhalla, Adv. Ms. Tanvi Dubey, Adv. Mr. Raghav Sabharwal, AOR Mr. Mekala Ganesh Kumar Reddy, Adv. Mr. Aditya Nema, Adv. Ms. Shymphy Sharma, Adv. Mr. Arman Sharma, Adv. Ms. Yeshasvi Shrivastava, Adv. Ms. Priyanka Dubey, Adv. Dr. Vinod Kumar Tewari, AOR Mrs. Geeta Luthra, Sr. Adv. Ms. Shivani Luthra Lohiya, Adv. Mr. Nitin Saluja, AOR Mr. Anirban Chanda, Adv. Ms. Pranya Madan, Adv. Ms. Shashi Kiran, Sr. Adv. Ms. Sadhana Sandhu, AOR Mr. Rohit Pandey, Adv. Dr. Satish Chandra, Adv. Mr. Ujjwal Gaur, Adv. Ms. Manisha, Adv. Ms. Bansuri Swaraj, Sr. Adv. Mr. Siddhesh Shirish Kotwal, AOR Ms. Ana Upadhyay, Adv. Ms. Manya Hasija, Adv. Mr. Tejasvi Gupta, Adv. Mr. Pawan Upadhyay, Adv. Mr. T. Illayarasu, Adv. Mr. Sameer Abhyankar, AOR Mr. Rahul Kumar, Adv. Mr. Aryan Srivastava, Adv. Ms. Ayushi Bansal, Adv. Mr. Sarthak Dora, Adv. Mr. Aakash Thakur, Adv. Mr. Raghenth Basant, Sr. Adv. Mr. Ravi Raghunath, AOR Ms. Kaushitaki Sharma, Adv. Mr. Rajesh Sen, Adv. Mr. Debanik Banerjee, Adv. Mrs. Shibani Bhattacharjee, Adv. Mr. Vikas Jain, AOR Mr. Akash Ganguly, Adv. Ms. Shrawani, Adv. Mr. Hardik Jayal, Adv. Mr. Aviral Saxena, Adv. Mr. Piyush Thanvi, Adv. Mr. Shashank Shekhar Jha, Adv. Ms. Priyanka Thakur, Adv. Mr. Anil Kumar, AOR Mr. Shrikrishna Ganbavale, Adv. Mr. Omkar Jayant Deshpande, Adv. Mr. Shashibhushan P. Adgaonkar, AOR Ms. Karuna Nundy, Sr. Adv. Mr. Sabyasachi Chatterjee, Adv. Mr. Subhro Prokas Mukherjee, AOR Mr. Gajendra Singh Negi, Adv. Mr. Kiron Sk, Adv. Mr. Badrul Karim, Adv. Ms. Rishika Rishabh, Adv. Mr. Svarit Uniyal Mishra, Adv. Mrs. Srabani Mukherjee, Adv. Mr. Shekhar Banerjee, Adv. Mr. Vivek Sood, Sr. Adv. Mr. Vijay Arora, Adv. Mr. Sandeep Gupta, AOR Mr. Vijay Kumar Dhakane, Adv. Mr. Kunal Dutta, Adv. Mr. Karan Singh, Adv. Ms. Kanchan Gupta, Adv. Ms. Aishwarya Kumar, Adv. Mr. Satayam Singh, Adv. Mr. Sanjeev Gupta, Adv. Mr. Rajeev Ranjan, Adv. Ms. Bhanu Kapoor, Adv. Ms. Sheetal Rajput, Adv. Ms. Sneha Rani, Adv. Mr. Akshay Singh, Adv. Mr. Mrinal Kishor, Adv. Mr. Rahul Kumar Jain, Adv. Mr. Sourabh Singh, Adv. Mr. Diwas Kumar, Adv. Mr. Shivam Singh, Adv. Mr. Shivam Pandey, Adv. Ms. Ritu Reniwal, Adv. Mr. Thomas Oommen, AOR Mr. Vishal Tiwari, Adv. Mr. Abhigya Kushwah, AOR Mrs. Sunita, Adv. Mr. Shailendra Mani Tripathi, Adv. Ms. Kumari Nidhi Tripathi, Adv. Ms. Eliza Gupta, Adv. Mr. Pradeep Kumar Dubey, Adv. Mr. Siddharth Rajkumar Murarka, Adv. Mr. Rohan Rohatgi, Adv. Mrs. Shubhangini Rohatgi, Adv. Mr. Ravindra Kumar Gupta, Adv. Mr. Phiroze Edulji, Adv. Mr. Anjan Datta, Adv. Ms. Ishita Shrivastava, Adv. Mr. Vishal Arun Mishra, AOR Mr. Vivek Kumar Singh, Adv. Ms. Rupali Panwar, Adv. Mr. Saurabh Sharma, Adv. Mr. Ayush Panwar, Adv. Ms. Mohini Priya, AOR Mr. Jamshed Mistry, Adv. Mr. Sunil Khattri, Adv. Ms. Jhuma Sen, Adv. Mr. Anirudh Sanganeria, AOR Mr. Vijay Hansaria, Sr. Adv. Ms. Sneha Kalita, AOR Ms. Kavya Jhawar, Adv. Ms. Nandini, Adv. Mr. Firdous Samim, Adv. Ms. Gopa Biswas, Adv. Mr. Ali Asghar Rahim, Adv. Mr. Shekhar Kumar, AOR Mr. Abhimanyu Tewari, AOR Ms. Eliza Bar, Adv. Ms. Kumud Lata Das, AOR Ms. Indu Kaul, Adv. Mr. Bibhuti Krishna, Adv. Mr. Aman Anand, Adv. Ms. Pooja Rathore, Adv. Ms. Rubina Jawed, Adv.
Applicant-in-person: Mr. Mahesh Jethmalani, Sr. Adv. Mr. Shoumendu Mukherji, AOR Mr. Ajay Awastih, Adv. Mr. Vaibhav Thaledi, Adv. Ms. Megha Sharma, Adv. Ms. Mugdha Pande, Adv. Mr. Arya Jha, Adv.