PIL against MCD doctors strike: HC seeks govt's reply

Delhi High Court today sought responses of the AAP government, Medical Council of India and the Indian Medical Association on a PIL against the strike by doctors and nurses over alleged non-payment of wages by the municipal corporations.
A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath also issued notice to east and north municipal corporations of Delhi (MCDs) as well as associations representing the doctors and nurses working there and sought their replies to the plea by February 10.
The Youth Bar Association of India (YBAI), which has filed the petition, submitted before the bench that in a similar situation in Uttarakhand, the high court there had issued directions within 20 minutes of filing of a plea that the strike be called off. It sought similar orders here.

The bench, however, said it will first wait for the responses of the authorities before any order or direction is passed.
In the PIL filed through its President Sanpreet Singh Ajmani, YBAI has said a large number of people go to government hospitals and clinics run by the corporations and if the doctors and nurses go on strike, it would adversely affect the patients.
It has said that doctors and nurses provide "essential services" and thus, they should not go on strike.

The doctors and nurses have been on strike over alleged non-payment of their wages by the respective corporations controlling them. Apart from them, sanitation workers of the MCDs are on strike on the same issue.

YBIA, in its plea, has asked "whether the call for strike by practicing doctors, nurses, hospitals, pathology labs, ambulance operators and clinics is legal, proper and justified."
In its petition, it has sought directions to doctors and nurses on strike to call it off and "resume medical services with immediate effect in the interest of public at large".
Yesterday, an association representing doctors employed by the MCDs has sought impleadment in the matter involving strike by sanitation workers. They have sought a direction to take away health services and the doctors from the corporations and hand them over to the Delhi government.

The association has alleged in its application that the corporations are "giving lame, false and misleading excuses" for non-payment of salary as the MCD managements were "working for their personal gain and political motives".