RG Kar Case: “Why so tardy”, Supreme Court dissatisfied with Bengal govt’s progress to upgrade security apparatus at govt hospitals; States assures completion by Oct 15.

The Supreme Court of India on Monday expressed dissatisfaction with the progress of the state government of West Bengal in upgrading the security apparatus at state run hospitals in the wake of the RG Kar horror where a 31 year old PGT medical student was raped and murdered inside the hospital building on August 9. “Why is the progress so tardy”, CJI DY Chandrachud had asked the state counsel Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi while going through the affidavit filed by the health department of the state government of Mamata Banerjee outlining the works undertaken and the progress of them, ensuring better safety module for the junior and resident doctors.

After the junior doctors had gone on cease work, which eventually lasted for 42 days, the Supreme Court has asked the Bengal government to better the safety features at every government hospital across the state, that included installation of more CCTV cameras, biometric facility to stall entry of outsiders inside the hospital without any purpose, building of proper restrooms and toilets for the doctors. “None of the work has completed”, the bench pointed out as the State counsel Adv Dwivedi submitted that the installation of the CCTV work has completed 26 percent so far. The state also submitted that the delay had happened due to the ongoing flood situation in the state that had contained fund allocations.

The Supreme Court has ordered the completion of the work by October 15, as was offered as a deadline by the state health department. The state also highlighted that work of installation of CCTV cameras, as far as RG Kar Medical College and Hospital (MCH) is concerned, was almost through. The state has been asked to file a comprehensive status report by the next hearing. The junior doctors have been demanding better security system at government hospitals, reducing their vulnerabilities while on duty.

The top court had earlier constituted a 10-member National Task Force (NTF) to formulate a protocol for ensuring the safety and security of doctors and other health care professionals. The NTF has been ordered to file its status report- both interim and final, as far as the roadmap was concerned by the next hearing, scheduled for coming Monday. The bench, during their fifth hearing on Monday, after the Apex court had taken up the suo moto case on August 20, was appraised of the fresh incident of manhandling and assault on doctors at Sagar Dutta Hospital, another government hospital near Kolkata last week, as the both the counsels for resident doctors and junior doctors insisted on a need for a better conducive atmosphere for them to work.


Additionally, the bench of CJI DY Chandrachud along with Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra ordered the Ministry of Electronics and IT to notify a nodal officer to check on any use of victim’s details identifying her or making her identifiable in publications or social media posts. SC reiterated its previous order that no intermediary is allowed to publish name and photo of victim in R G Kar case.​