HC Division Bench upheld directives of single bench allowing doctors to organise sit-in protest

The division bench of the Calcutta High Court (HC) on Monday upheld the directives of the single bench allowing the West Bengal Joint Platform of Doctors (WBJPD) for a sit-in protest programme at Metro Channel, opposite the Metro Cinema shopping plaza at Esplanade, on the incident of the brutal rape and murder of a young woman doctor at the RG Kar Medical College Hospital till 26 December.

- STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE

Today, the division bench of Justice Harish Tandon and Justice Hiranmoy Bhattacharyya, while issuing the order, upheld the earlier directives of the single bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh. Challenging the order of the single bench, the state government had moved the division bench. Raising questions on the sit-in-demonstration programme of the WBJPD, the state government in the division bench asked why the doctors organise such programme at Metro Channel, regularly disrupting traffic movements on the eve of the Christmas festival at a time when the Supreme Court is monitoring the RG Kar Medical College Hospital case.

The state government argued, raising questions, "Why do they use the Metro Channel for protest instead of the nearby Y Channel?" Bikashranjan Bhattacharya, senior lawyer on behalf of the petitioners, countered the state government, saying, "What's the problem with the administration when common people come to the protest programme of the doctors? Following the directives of the HC (single bench), all participants stay inside the guardrail installed at the site. People go to Park Street, not Dorina Crossing, during the Christmas festival."

Justice Tandon, while giving observations, said that the RG Kar Hospital incident is unprecedented, horrible and unimaginable. The protesting doctors' body, WBJPD, said that they would inform the court whether they would carry on the ongoing protest programme on 25 January or not.