The junior doctors across government medical colleges in Bengal continued with their cease-work on Thursday despite the Supreme Court saying that it expected the doctors to resume work.
Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud told the counsel for the protesting doctors during Thursday’s hearing that “justice and medicine cannot go on strike”. The CJI also asked “how does the public health infrastructure run if doctors do not resume work”.
But the junior doctors said their primary demand, for which they started the cease-work, was the arrest of all culprits who were involved in the rape and murder of the postgraduate trainee at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.
The woman was found raped and murdered in the hospital on August 9.
“The cease-work will continue,” said a junior doctor at RG Kar around 10.30pm. A general body meeting of the protesting doctors was continuing till late at night to decide on their course of action.
Asked why they were still continuing their cease-work despite the Supreme Court saying that it expected them to resume work, the protesters highlighted the fact that only one person has been arrested though 13 days have passed since the rape and murder.
They said that in the nine days since the CBI took over the probe, they have not been able to know anything about the progress in the investigation.
Calcutta High Court took away the probe from Kolkata Police and handed it to the CBI on August 13.
“We are expecting compliance with the assurance which has been given to the Court that the doctors would join normal duties,” the Supreme Court bench wrote in its order.
“In view of the fact that this Court has taken measures to ensure the institutionalization of the concerns of the medical professionals in terms of the previous order dated 20 August 2024, it is only to be expected that doctors would now return to work.”
But the protesting doctors feel the CBI probe has not given them any reasons to end their cease-work.
“What is the CBI doing? What have they found so far? We know nothing about it. We are quite unhappy and disappointed with how the probe is progressing. Even during Thursday’s Supreme Court hearing, we could not get to know anything about the progress in the investigation,” said a postgraduate trainee at RG Kar.
The CBI submitted its status report on the progress of the investigation in the Supreme Court on Thursday.
Aniket Mahato, a protesting doctor at RG Kar, said an overwhelming majority of junior doctors were still in favour of continuing with the cease-work.
“The general body meeting, which will be attended by junior doctors from all medical colleges across Bengal, will decide whether the cease-work will continue or not,” he said.
Earlier in the day, a big screen was installed near the protest venue at RG Kar to live telecast the Supreme Court proceedings. Many students and doctors listened to the arguments with rapt attention.
“If the CBI believes that evidence has been tampered with, they should come out and say it. If they think evidence has not been tampered with, they should say that in public, too. Do they think more than one person was involved in the crime? The CBI is not saying anything,” said another postgraduate trainee.
The protesting doctors have been saying since the start of their cease-work on August 10 that more than one person was involved in the crime.
The nursing staff at RG Kar and other medical colleges are supporting the doctors’ cease-work, though the nurses in most places are working. They are joining the protests in rotation, when they are not on duty.
