IMA's battle and SC's intervention
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: August 22, 2024 -

KUDOS to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) and his colleagues. They have done it again.

At a time when trust of the people in the government- instituted inquiry committees or central investigation agencies is waning, it is heartening to know that a three-judge bench ofthe Supreme Court of India headed by CJI DY Chandrachud has taken up a suo moto case in the rape and murder a young female trainee doctor at the West Bengal Government-run RK Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on August 9.

The horrific nature of the crime committed, the details of which are coming to the fore with each passing day, is such that it has shaken the entire nation and forced the doctors to go on a nation-wide strike, demanding safety of medical professionals at work places.

However, the Trinamool Congress-led West Bengal Government and other political parties have been indulging in their usual game of finger-pointing at each other to exploit the situation and take political mileage out of it.

While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI (IM), which are in the opposition in West Bengal, have questioned the Mamata Banerjee-led government over the incident and demanded her resignation, the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) has in turn blamed the opposition parties for trying to foment trouble in the state and "make a Bangladesh here".

All these political cacophonies have drowned out the cries of people and bereaved family for ensuring justice to the victim by giving befitting punishment to the culprit(s) dr the five key demands raised by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) which primarily focus on the safety of medical professionals at work places.

This is indeed very sad. It is precisely because of such lackadaisical political response to the horrific crime that people have lost trust in the government- instituted inquiry committees or central investigation agencies.

As IMA had pointed out earlier, "The RG Kar incident has brought to the fore the two dimensions of violence in the hospital: a crime of barbaric scale due to the lack of safe spaces for women and the hooliganism that is unleashed due to the lack of an organised security protocol. Today both the medical fraternity and the nation are victims," there many things that need to be looked into and questions that need to be answered.

It is good that the Supreme Court of India has stepped ip to do the job that should have been essential done by the West Bengal Government, its police force, and the authorities of RK Kar Medical College and Hospital.

By doing its own investigation, the apex court of the country has laid bare the glaring procedural lapses in handling the case.

Why did the principal of the medical college try to pass it off as suicide and not allow the parents of the victim to see the body?

If the crime was detected in the morning and the victim's body was handed over to the bereaved family for cremation at 8.30 pm, why the FIR was filed three hours later?

If the autopsy conducted between 1.45 pm and 4 pm had revealed it was a case of murder, what was preventing the hospital authorities from filing an FIR promptly?

These are some of the questions that CJI DY Chandrachud had asked senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who represented the West Bengal Government during hearing on the suo moto case on Wednesday.

Interestingly, these are also the same questions people have in their mind and they need to know the answers.

Most importantly, it is good to know that the intervention of the Supreme Court has led to setting up of a National Task Force (NTF) comprising of top doctors who would submit recommendations to ensure safety of medical practitioners at work places.

It is half a battle won for IMA.