Jharkhand High Court has directed the state government to form a committee to investigate the deaths of patients during a strike of doctors at the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Ranchi in 2018.

The Jharkhand Chhatra Sangh had filed a petition before the high court citing media reports that 28 people had died during the strike.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjaya Kumar Mishra and Justice Ananda Sen was hearing the PIL which demanded that striking doctors and nurses be held responsible for the deaths and the next of kin of the deceased be compensated.

The court ordered that the panel be headed by a retired officer of the principal district judge rank.

It directed the government to file an affidavit and inform it about the modalities for forming the committee.

Junior doctors and nursing staff had called for a strike after a dispute between a patient's family members and medical personnel had taken a violent turn on June 1, 2018.

The strike continued for a few days, after which normal work resumed.

The high court, while earlier hearing the matter, had expressed annoyance over the attitude of the doctors and nurses responsible for calling the strike. It had said that emergency medical services cannot be put on hold, with patients' lives at stake.

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