Advertisement
The first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P D Audikesdavalu gave a direction to this effect, while disposing of a public interest writ petition from Dr G R Ravindranath, general secretary of the Doctors Association for Social Equality.
The petitioner sought the strict implementation of a July 2015 notification of the Directorate of Medical Education to provide eight hours duty per day on shift basis to PG medical students and under-graduate CRRI candidates at State-run hospitals and medical colleges.
It was true that the doctors were engaged beyond eight hours duty due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But this practice is no longer prevalent since February this year and there has been no violation. Moreover, committees have been constituted to check this and any individual can make use of this in case of the person being subjected to more work, Government Pleader P Muthukumar told the bench.
Related Articles
Advertisement
“In the light of the above, the petition appears to have served its purpose. Merely because government hospitals and medical colleges may not be appropriately or adequately staffed, will not entail that post-graduate medical students or under-graduate interns would be subjected to additional hours” and the situation should be monitored on a continuous basis, the bench said and disposed of the PIL