The protesting junior doctors will approach Calcutta High Court seeking elections to student unions and resident doctors’ associations in medical colleges, one of the doctors on a fast unto death said on Wednesday.
Rumelika Kumar, a postgraduate trainee at the All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health who started her fast on Tuesday, also said the junior doctors would not relent till all their demands are met.
Bengal’s chief secretary Manoj Pant said on Monday it would not be possible for the state government to give a timeline — one of the demands of the protesting junior doctors — for the campus elections.
“We will approach Calcutta High Court to have student union elections and elections to resident doctors’ associations,” said Kumar.
“We have already had a preliminary discussion among ourselves about moving the high court.”
The Supreme Court had on Tuesday refused to entertain a plea of Indira Jaising, the counsel for the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front, that the court issue an order on the conduct of elections to various student bodies in Bengal.
The bench of Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra told Jaising that she could approach Calcutta High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution to seek appropriate directions for the authorities concerned.
“We are not going to enter into this. This is not the remit of the case,” the chief justice told Jaising when she tried to persist with the argument.
No elections to student bodies in Bengal’s medical colleges have been held at least in the past five years.
Student union elections have not been held in any educational institution in the state after 2019, when polls were held in a few unitary universities, including Jadavpur and Presidency.
In most other educational institutions, student union elections were last held in 2017. The government imposed a bar on polls after that to prevent campus violence.
The West Bengal Universities and Colleges (Composition, Functions and Procedure for Election of Students’ Council) Rules, 2017, said campuses could only hold polls to students’ councils. There is no mention of the students’ union.
According to the 2017 rules, the vice-chancellor has the power to nominate the president, vice-president and treasurer of the students’ councils from among teachers. The secretary and assistant secretaries will be elected from among the students.
Asked about the junior doctors’ response to Pant’s statement that the Bengal government cannot provide any timeline on at least three of their demands, Kumar said the medics would continue their hunger strike till all the demands are met.
These demands are elections to students’ unions and resident doctors’ associations; removal of N.S. Nigam from the post of health secretary; and inclusion of elected representatives of students and junior doctors in decision-making bodies and investigation of complaints of corruption in the West Bengal Medical Council and the West Bengal Health Recruitment Board.
“We will continue the fast unto death till the state government accedes to all our demands,” she said.
Parichay Panda, a postgraduate trainee at Ramakrishna Mission Seva Pratishthan and one of the fasting doctors, said they were prepared to continue their fast unto death.
“If the government wants, they can resolve the issue of student elections and start a probe into the complaints of corruption in the West Bengal Medical Council and the West Bengal Health Recruitment Board within a very short time. It is disappointing that they failed to fix a timeline for this,” said Panda.
The protest dais at Esplanade and the area surrounding it was a quieter place on Wednesday, compared with the bustle on Tuesday when a “carnival of protests” was held on Rani Rashmoni Avenue and a human chain was formed at the call of junior doctors.
Many junior doctors said they spent time reading books from their fields of study. Some read story books or played games on their mobile phones.
Additional reporting by Subhankar Chowdhury
