The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to consider a plea for a direction to deploy uniformed security personnel at every government hospital of the country to ensure safety and security of the doctors, who often faced assault by the patients' kin.
A bench of Justices Deepak Gupta and Surya Kant put the petition for hearing on Tuesday on plea for an urgent hearing made by advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava, who filed the PIL in his own name.
Citing assault on junior doctors at NRS Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on June 10, Srivastava sought a direction to formulate "appropriate guidelines/ Act/ Rule or Regulation" to protect the doctors working at government hospitals.
In his PIL, the advocate contended as per a study conducted by the Indian Medical Association (IMA), more than 75% of doctors across the country have faced at least some form of violence. This study concluded that 50 percent of violent incidents took place in the Intensive Care Unit of hospitals, and in 70% of cases, the relatives of the patients were actively involved.
"The doctors are our saviours and particularly those working in government hospitals are doing great national service, specially to the poor and downtrodden of this country, in extremely adverse circumstances," the petition stated.
Srivastava said he filed the petition to resolve amicably the ongoing protests and strike of the doctors, in order to save lives of lakhs of patients.
Seeking strict action in Kolkata incident, the petitioner pointed out grave injury was being caused to the public at large due to "legislative vacuum and inaction" on the part of the government in such cases.