SC Seeks Centre's Response on Plea for Framing Guidelines on Protection of Hospital Staff

The apex court has requested responses from the Centre and the Uttarakhand government regarding a plea from a girl whose mother, an OPD assistant, was allegedly raped and murdered. The plea highlights delays and procedural issues in the FIR registration by Uttarakhand Police and calls for guidelines to protect hospital staff and a centralised alert system for missing persons.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday sought the response of the Centre and the Uttarakhand government on a plea moved by a girl, whose mother was allegedly raped and killed, seeking framing of guidelines on the protection of hospital staffers across the country.

A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra was hearing the plea of the girl, who has moved the court through her maternal grandfather, alleging a delay and other procedural lapses on the part of the Uttarakhand Police in lodging an FIR in connection with the alleged rape and killing of her mother, who was employed with a hospital in the state.

Besides seeking a direction to the Centre to frame guidelines on the protection of hospital staff regardless of their medical qualification, the plea has also sought an order "to mandate a centralised alert in case a woman is reported to be missing and cannot be located within a reasonable time-frame".

The girl has sought an independent inquiry into the death and alleged sexual assault of her mother, who was working as an OPD assistant in the hospital. According to the plea, the victim went missing in the evening of July 30 and her partly-decomposed body was found on August 8 near her apartment in Rudrapur in Udham Singh Nagar.

The plea has said police lodged a missing report and even the FIR belatedly, after a media outcry and an agitation. The FIR was registered on August 14.

"It is pertinent to mention here that even the post-mortem report failed to substantiate any specific cause for the death of the deceased and squarely covered the things on the basis that due to the advanced stage of decomposition, it is not possible to make any definite comment regarding the presence or absence of any skin or visceral injury, which may have individually or collectively caused the death or contributed to the cause of the death," it has said.

The plea has said the minor is entitled to compensation under the Uttarakhand Compensation Scheme for Women Victims/Survivors of Sexual Assault Other Crimes, 2022 and yet no assistance has been provided to her or to her grandfather.

It is clear that the investigation carried out by the local police is not reliable and an independent probe is needed, the plea has said.