New Delhi. The Supreme Court on Tuesday questioned the state government on the appointment of civilian volunteers in West Bengal and sought details regarding their recruitment and appointment process. A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra described the appointment process as a means of giving “political protection” to unverified people.
The top court directed the state government to submit details regarding the legal source of recruitment authority, modalities, qualifications, verification, institutions in which civilian volunteers have been deployed and payments made to them. The apex court was hearing a suo motu case of rape and murder of a female doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata.
The top court directed the state government to take steps to ensure that these volunteers are not deployed in sensitive establishments like hospitals and schools. The Court was informed that Sanjay Roy, accused of rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata, was a civilian police volunteer and had unfettered access to the hospital building.
Senior advocate Karuna Nandy, appearing for a doctors’ association, said the state government has doubled the recruitment of civilian volunteers, which is in violation of the Calcutta High Court order barring them from discharging any law and order function. Has been given. Advocate Vrinda Grover, appearing for the deceased’s family, said the main accused in the case was recruited as a civic volunteer despite facing criminal cases of domestic violence.
The top court told senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, representing the West Bengal government, “Who recruits these civilian volunteers? We need to know what these abilities are. We need to know that such volunteers do not work in hospitals and schools that are sensitive in nature…otherwise it is a process of providing political patronage to people who are completely unverified.” Dwivedi informed the bench that recruitment of security staff in hospitals is now being done as per the Private Security Agencies (Regulation) Act 2005 like in the rest of the country.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), presented the agency’s fifth status report before the bench. Mehta told the bench, “The investigation in the case is going on with utmost seriousness. “A chargesheet in the case was filed against accused Sanjay Roy on October 7 and the Sealdah court has taken cognizance.” The top court said that the CBI report indicates that the agency is probing the role of other persons as part of the investigation. It sought another status-quo report from the CBI within three weeks.
On the issue of the National Task Force (NTF) formed to make recommendations on the safety of medical professionals, the top court said that no meeting has been held since the first week of September. The top court directed the Center to take proactive steps to ensure that the work is completed within a reasonable time.
Directing to prepare recommendations on the safety of Kolkata doctors within three weeks, the bench said, “NTF meetings should be held from time to time and all sub-groups should hold regular meetings.” It said that the next hearing in the case will be held after the Diwali holidays. The court had on September 30 expressed dissatisfaction over the “slow” progress by the West Bengal government in installation of CCTV and construction of toilets and separate rest rooms in government medical colleges and directed the state government to complete the work by October 15. .
The top court had on September 17 said it was troubled by the findings in the fact-finding report filed by the CBI in the rape and murder case of the female doctor, but refused to give details, saying any disclosure would jeopardize the investigation. May fall in. On September 9, the court had expressed concern over the absence of “challan” from the records presented before it in the related case and had sought a report from the West Bengal government. This “challan” was an important document related to sending the body of the trainee doctor for postmortem.
It had on August 22 slammed Kolkata Police over its delay in registering a case of unnatural death of a doctor in a hospital rape and murder case, calling it “extremely disturbing” and questioned the timing of further developments and procedural formalities. Were. The apex court had constituted a 10-member national task force to prepare a protocol to ensure the safety of doctors and other health care professionals.
Terming the incident as “horrific”, it had slammed the state government over the delay in filing the FIR and the vandalism at the hospital by thousands of people. Protests had started across the country after the rape and murder of a junior doctor in the seminar hall of a government hospital. The body of the female doctor was found on August 9, which had serious injury marks. The next day, Kolkata Police arrested a civilian volunteer in the case. On August 13, the Calcutta High Court had ordered the transfer of the investigation from Kolkata Police to the CBI, which had started the investigation on August 14.