Docs can’t strike work, says HC, but junks transfer order
Restore 135 City Docs To Original Position: Court
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Chennai:29.02.2020
Doctors don’t have the right to go on strike or boycott work under any circumstance, declared the Madras high court on Friday. “Between the demands of doctors and the lives of the patients, it is life that is more important than anything else,” the court said.
By using strike to resolve issues, doctors, like lawyers, forget the moral worth and dignity of patients and leave them in the lurch, unmindful of the humanitarian consequences of their actions, Justice N Anand Venkatesh said. Patients cannot be a means to an end. They cannot be mere playthings whose lives can be put on the line to achieve other ends through the medium of strikes, he said. “The nature of duty of a doctor is such that the non-availability of the doctor even for a single minute may cost a life,” he said.
The judge, however, quashed the government charge memo to 135 doctors who spearheaded the protest for about a week in October 2019 and cancelled their transfers from Chennai to other locations, and directed the state to restore them to their original positions in the next transfer counselling.
Protests can’t infringe rights of others: SC
After a few judges spoke on the cardinality of the right to dissent and protest peacefully, the Supreme Court on Friday ruled that one’s right to protest could not infringe upon the rights of others as it upheld the Uttarakhand high court verdict initiating stringent action against lawyers boycotting district court work for years, reports Dhananjay Mahapatra.
Uttarakhand lawyers had moved the SC claiming that the HC verdict violated their fundamental right to free speech to go on strike to protest against issues concerning them. They said it was a mode of peaceful representation to express grievances of the lawyer community. Rejecting the arguments, a bench of Justices Arun Mishra and M R Shah said, “Such a right to freedom of speech cannot be exercised at the cost of litigants and/or at the cost of the justice delivery system as a whole.” “To go on strike or boycott courts cannot be justified under the guise of right to freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution,” the SC bench said. Advocates in the districts of Dehradun, Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar have been boycotting court work on Saturdays for more than 35 years. P10
State govt tried to show its might with orders against doctors: Court
Chennai: “The action taken by the government by picking and choosing certain doctors and issuing them with the charge memos and transfer orders was not done to bring the situation under control but to warn them that anyone who spearhead such agitations will be dealt with iron hands,” the judge said.
The doctors had filed the present pleas challenging the transfer and charge memo. At least 18,000 governmentdoctorswereon strikefrom October 25, 2019 across the state pressing various demands, including wage hike. Subsequently, in view of an announcement made by the state on October 30, 2019, that no punitive actions would be initiated against them, the doctors withdrew the strike on November 1.
It is clear from the facts that the chief minister and health minister had requested the doctors to resume work with a promise that their demands will belookedinto.Immediately,the agitation wascalled off. As a model employer, the government ought to havefollowedup andcomeoutwithsolutionsfor the doctors’ demands.Insteadof resorting tosuch a positive step, the government decided to show its might against the office bearers, the court added.
“The charge memos and the transfer orders issued are clearly tainted with mala fides. If action had to be necessarily taken for the agitation/strike, then it should have been taken against all the doctors who participated in the same. However, the statehaschosen to goonly againsttheofficebearers and hasty transfer orders have been passed and charge memos have been issued,” Justice Anand Venkatesh said.
Before parting, the judge reminded doctors that the chances of going on a strike again is virtually ruled out and said the court makes a fervent request to the government to immediately address the issues/demands made by the doctors and find a solution.
Restore 135 City Docs To Original Position: Court
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Chennai:29.02.2020
Doctors don’t have the right to go on strike or boycott work under any circumstance, declared the Madras high court on Friday. “Between the demands of doctors and the lives of the patients, it is life that is more important than anything else,” the court said.
By using strike to resolve issues, doctors, like lawyers, forget the moral worth and dignity of patients and leave them in the lurch, unmindful of the humanitarian consequences of their actions, Justice N Anand Venkatesh said. Patients cannot be a means to an end. They cannot be mere playthings whose lives can be put on the line to achieve other ends through the medium of strikes, he said. “The nature of duty of a doctor is such that the non-availability of the doctor even for a single minute may cost a life,” he said.
The judge, however, quashed the government charge memo to 135 doctors who spearheaded the protest for about a week in October 2019 and cancelled their transfers from Chennai to other locations, and directed the state to restore them to their original positions in the next transfer counselling.
Protests can’t infringe rights of others: SC
After a few judges spoke on the cardinality of the right to dissent and protest peacefully, the Supreme Court on Friday ruled that one’s right to protest could not infringe upon the rights of others as it upheld the Uttarakhand high court verdict initiating stringent action against lawyers boycotting district court work for years, reports Dhananjay Mahapatra.
Uttarakhand lawyers had moved the SC claiming that the HC verdict violated their fundamental right to free speech to go on strike to protest against issues concerning them. They said it was a mode of peaceful representation to express grievances of the lawyer community. Rejecting the arguments, a bench of Justices Arun Mishra and M R Shah said, “Such a right to freedom of speech cannot be exercised at the cost of litigants and/or at the cost of the justice delivery system as a whole.” “To go on strike or boycott courts cannot be justified under the guise of right to freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution,” the SC bench said. Advocates in the districts of Dehradun, Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar have been boycotting court work on Saturdays for more than 35 years. P10
State govt tried to show its might with orders against doctors: Court
Chennai: “The action taken by the government by picking and choosing certain doctors and issuing them with the charge memos and transfer orders was not done to bring the situation under control but to warn them that anyone who spearhead such agitations will be dealt with iron hands,” the judge said.
The doctors had filed the present pleas challenging the transfer and charge memo. At least 18,000 governmentdoctorswereon strikefrom October 25, 2019 across the state pressing various demands, including wage hike. Subsequently, in view of an announcement made by the state on October 30, 2019, that no punitive actions would be initiated against them, the doctors withdrew the strike on November 1.
It is clear from the facts that the chief minister and health minister had requested the doctors to resume work with a promise that their demands will belookedinto.Immediately,the agitation wascalled off. As a model employer, the government ought to havefollowedup andcomeoutwithsolutionsfor the doctors’ demands.Insteadof resorting tosuch a positive step, the government decided to show its might against the office bearers, the court added.
“The charge memos and the transfer orders issued are clearly tainted with mala fides. If action had to be necessarily taken for the agitation/strike, then it should have been taken against all the doctors who participated in the same. However, the statehaschosen to goonly againsttheofficebearers and hasty transfer orders have been passed and charge memos have been issued,” Justice Anand Venkatesh said.
Before parting, the judge reminded doctors that the chances of going on a strike again is virtually ruled out and said the court makes a fervent request to the government to immediately address the issues/demands made by the doctors and find a solution.
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