Hyderabad(IANS) : The junior doctors of government-run hospitals in Andhra Pradesh Wednesday called off their strike after a court threatened penal action against them and ordered the police to file a contempt of court case against them amid dramatic scenes in the courtroom.
Office-bearers of the Andhra Pradesh Junior Doctors Association (APJDA) tendered an apology after the division bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court comprising Acting Chief Justice Bilal Nazki and Justice Ramesh Ranganathan admonished them for their attitude and directed the police to book them.
The courtroom witnessed dramatic scenes when one of the representatives of APJDA placed conditions before the court for withdrawing the 11-day old strike.
An APJDA representative insisted that doctors be first provided protection.
“We are being blamed for the death of children but who is responsible for the death of 2,000 people who died last year?” he asked. A large number of doctors present in the court clapped – inviting the wrath of the judges.
“This is not a cinema theatre,” remarked an angry chief justice and directed security personnel to close the doors and arrest doctors for contempt of court.
Several junior doctors ran out of the courtroom in panic.
The APJDA leaders were issued contempt of court notice and directed to appear in the court Thursday.
After the APJDA tendered an apology and agreed to withdraw the strike unconditionally, the court assured them their demand for protection at hospitals would be looked into.
About 3,000 junior doctors were on strike since Dec 2 to protest the alleged attack on some doctors by Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) legislator Afsar Khan and his supporters that day.
The indefinite strike by the doctors hit the medical services at government-run hospitals, especially the Niloufer Children’s Hospital.
About 40 children died at the hospital since the strike began. While parents of the children alleged that the deaths were due to lack of medical care, hospital authorities termed the deaths as “routine” and claimed that senior doctors were attending to the patients.
The high court Tuesday took a serious view of the strike and summoned APJDA president G. Raju. Angry over the APJDA continuing the strike despite a warning last week, the bench warned that it would ask the police to arrest them and direct the Indian Medical Council to cancel their registration.
The court, which was hearing a public interest petition, said the doctors could not act like trade unions and it was their responsibility to take care of the patients. It noted that the defiant attitude of the junior doctors in continuing the strike was causing loss of lives of innocent and helpless children.
The junior doctors were demanding a law to provide protection to them at all hospitals, registration of an attempt to murder case against the legislator, his arrest and disqualification from the assembly. Several rounds of talks between the striking doctors and the state government had failed to break the deadlock.
The legislator, who represents the Karwan constituency in the state capital and was also involved in the attack on controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen here in August, allegedly assaulted doctors during an argument over the alleged negligence by the doctors in treatment of daughter of an MIM worker on Dec 2.
Afsar Khan was Dec 2 arrested on charges of assaulting the doctors but was released on bail the same day.
The state government had rejected the demand for booking Khan for attempt to murder. However, on a petition by a doctor, a lower court on Dec 6 directed the police to book the legislator and 29 others for attempt to murder.
Four supporters of the legislator were arrested by the police Tuesday.