The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed hospitals, including AIIMS New Delhi, to regularise the unauthorised absence of doctors who were part of protests against the rape and murder of a doctor at RG Kar Hospital, Kolkata.The heinous crime triggered nationwide outrage and prolonged protests in West Bengal. The hospital staff and doctors took part in nationwide protests after the body of the post-graduate trainee doctor was found in the RG Kar hospital’s seminar room on August 9, last year.
During its probe, Kolkata police arrested civic volunteer Sanjay Roy the next day in the case.
On Wednesday, a bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar took note of the submissions of a doctors’ body that some hospitals had regularised the absence of the doctors following its August 22, 2024 order whereas a few others, including AIIMS Delhi, decided to treat the period as leave of absence.