New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday will continue hearing a suo-motu cognizance case in connection with the RG Kar Hospital rape-murder case, which led to widespread protests and outrage in Kolkata. A three-judge led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud is likely to take up the matter for hearing on top of the board on Wednesday.
In the previous hearing on October 15, the West Bengal government’s move to appoint civic volunteers in the state’s institutions, including hospitals, came under scrutiny of the apex court. The court had asked the state government to provide detailed information about such appointments.
During the hearing, the bench told state counsel, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, representing the state government, “This is a nice way to confer political patronage on selected individuals. Let the state of West Bengal first give us the data on the next hearing”.
The bench made this observation after a counsel had informed the bench that there are nearly 1500 such volunteers, as of now. The counsel was arguing on an application that was filed in the court on behalf of Joint Platform of Doctors, West Bengal, a body representing senior doctors working in the state, which complained against the continuation of the “Rattirer Sathi Scheme”, despite a civic volunteer being the principal accused in the RG Kar incident.
The bench had noted that the prime accused in the case, Sanjay Roy, is a civic volunteer, who was deployed at the government-run RG Kar hospital.
The apex court also directed the West Bengal government to provide detailed information on the legal basis, qualifications, deployment and remuneration of civic volunteers involved in the state's institutions, including hospitals.
The bench had told the state government’s counsel to bring on record information on: the legal source of authority for hiring civic volunteers, the required qualification, the institutions in which they are assigned duties, and also, the payments made on a daily and monthly basis and the budget.
The bench said the state's affidavit should also mention the steps taken to ensure that such civic volunteers are not posted in hospitals, schools, police stations and places, which are sensitive, and also disclose the selection process being followed.
