Bonded doctors challenge govt’s FIR diktat

Bonded doctors challenge govt’s FIR diktat

Move HC Against Covid Duty Call

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad:28.06.2021

A group of 251 postgraduate and super-specialty doctors practising in Gujarat have approached the Gujarat high court challenging the state government’s decision to join them in Covid-19 duty and filing FIRs against them for not responding to the call of duty.

These doctors are bonded doctors, who studied in government medical colleges and were under obligation to serve in rural areas for few years after completion of their studies or else they should surrender the bond amount in lieu of the rural service.

The high court is likely to hear their case on Monday.

On May 4, following the surge in Covid-19 cases and falling short of human resource in dealing with the crisis, the state government took a decision to recruit bonded doctors as medical specialist Class –1 in Covid facilities from May 7. There were 1,415 such doctors who were called for Covid duty and nearly 1,000 doctors failed to report. The state health commissioner on June 20 ordered chief district health officers and the medical officers in corporations to file FIRs under the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 against 799 doctors who did not respond to the government’s call and for their failure to discharge their moral obligation to serve the society after having taken the benefit of the subsidised education in government medical colleges.

On June 21, the state government decided that the bonds submitted by the bonded doctors would not be received. Moreover, the health authorities were asked to issue show-cause notices to the doctors.

The petitioners have urged the HC to quashed the order for registration of FIRs against bonded doctors, to junk the order to assign Covid-19 duty to them and show-cause notices issued by the authorities. They have also demanded that the National Medical Council should formulate a pan-India policy regarding compulsory service bonds.

In a petition filed through advocates Angesh and Amit Panchal, the bonded doctors have contended that they are unable to meet the additional obligations under the bond and therefore requested to submit the bond amount, but the government refused to accept it.

The bonded doctors have raised a contention that both the state government and petitioners are bound by the terms of the bond. There is no clause in the contract that the state government would refuse to accept the bond amount. The refusal is unreasonable. By threatening criminal action, the attempt to enforce the contract for personal service is a violation of Article 23 of the Constitution.

The bonded doctors have also questioned why the state government chose to assign Covid-19 duty to only those medical professionals who studied medicine in the government colleges. Two more petitions have been filed by the doctors.

There were 1,415 such doctors who were called for Covid duty and nearly 1,000 doctors failed to turn up. The government reacted with an order to lodge FIRs