New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday strongly objected to the notification of the West Bengal government which said that women doctors should refrain from doing night duty and their duty should not exceed 12 hours. The court said how can women be stopped from doing night duty. No woman can be told that she cannot do night duty.

Doctors, pilots, armed forces, all have night duty. Women doctors are ready to work in every situation and they should work in every situation. Women do not want concessions but equal opportunities. They cannot be stopped from night duty. It is the duty of the state to provide them security.

The Supreme Court took suo motu cognizance of the matter

The apex court told the West Bengal government that it should correct its notification. Apart from this, the court also raised questions on the West Bengal government hiring security personnel on contract for security in hospitals. These comments and instructions were given by a bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud on Tuesday during the hearing of the case of brutality and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata. The Supreme Court is hearing this case on its own initiative.

Sibal assured the bench

The court told senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who was representing the West Bengal government, that you cannot tell women not to do night duty. This will be detrimental to their career. It is the duty of the state to provide them security. Women are not asking for any special concessions, they want equal opportunities. Sibal assured the bench that nothing will happen that will affect the equality of women.

The court raised questions on the safety of women

However, he said that not working for more than 12 hours should not be made mandatory. On this, the bench said that duty hours should be reasonable for all doctors. The court also questioned the government's decision to hire security personnel on contract to ensure the safety of doctors in the hospital. The Chief Justice said that the issue here is of the safety of doctors. How can contract security personnel be trusted? The accused of brutality against the doctor is a person from Civil Defence.

Doctors urged to return to work

The court said that the state police should be deployed for security. Sibal said that they are also thoroughly checked. Apart from this, police and CRPF will be deployed there. Assuring to improve the security system, Sibal requested the junior doctors to return to work, and also assured the court that if the doctors return to work, no punitive action will be taken against them.

recording in pen drive

During the hearing, the issue of providing only 27 minutes of CCTV footage to the CBI was also raised, but Sibal said that apart from this, the recording in a pen drive has been given to the CBI. Regarding the postmortem challan form, Sibal said that its use has been discontinued since 1997, although the state government follows the standard operating system issued by the Government of India and sends requisitions. The issue of postmortem challan was raised in the last hearing.