High Court tells junior doctors to resume duty

Hyderabad: Declaring that junior doctors do not have a right to go on strike indefinitely, the High Court at Hyderabad on Wednesday asked the doctors to end their protest and resume duties within 48 hours.

With the junior doctors continuing their stir for over 50 days, the PIL bench comprising Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and Justice P V Sanjay Kumar, termed the strike illegal.

The court also asked the state government to meet the just demands of the junior doctors in government-run medical colleges. It directed the government to go ahead to enhance the stipend on par with their civil assistant surgeons.

The Bench made clear that if the doctors withdraw their strike within 48 hours, then the government shall not take any punitive action against them but cautioned that if the Junior Doctors Association does not still call off the strike, the government was required to take action against them.

Reacting to the court orders, the Telangana Junior Doctors' Association (JUDA) said the government should take action to meet their long-pending demands.

The high court last month directed the junior doctors to end their stir and resume duty. It had then observed that they cannot strike work like daily wage workers.

However, defying the court and the government, which had threatened to debar them for six months, they continued the strike.

The junior doctors are demanding that the government withdraw the rule which makes it mandatory for them to serve in rural areas for one year.