New Delhi: Coming down strongly on incidents of attacks on doctors and hospital staff by politicians, the Supreme Court, on Monday, observed that such cases cannot be treated lightly and that those involved “must be taken into custody immediately and they must not be allowed to roam around.”
The Supreme Court’s remarks came after an incident was reported from a Palghar hospital in Maharashtra on Sunday, in which Shiv Sena activists allegedly slapped a receptionist and threatened a woman employee.
The Court made its strong observations while hearing a plea by Shiv Sena corporator Ramesh Sukrya Mhatre, who was arrested for allegedly assaulting doctors and hospital staff at KDMC’s Shastri Nagar Hospital in Thane’s Dombivli on July 6.
Mhatre had approached the Supreme Court challenging stringent conditions imposed by the Bombay HC while granting him bail. Among the conditions was a direction that he would not reside in Maharashtra. He had sought permission to visit Mumbai.
During Monday’s proceedings, the corporator’s counsel, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, sought to withdraw the appeal following strong observations from the bench.
“Things are going from bad to worse”, Justice Vikram Nath told Rohatgi, while referring to the growing incidents of attacks on doctors. The bench also referred to the recent incident in Palghar that had been reported in the media, as reported to timesnow.in.
“I want to withdraw my appeal. HC says file chargesheet in 10 days. He will be convicted soon,” Rohatgi then said.
The bench then responded firmly, saying, “Let him be convicted. We are not bothered. Let a message go.”
It would hear the State government’s appeal challenging the Bombay High Court’s decision to grant bail to Mhatre, the Court indicated.
“There seems to be a propensity to do these things. We will issue notice on the state’s SLP. If you want to withdraw, we are not stopping you…,” the Court said when Rohatgi sought to withdraw Mhatre’s appeal.
“Let a message go. The state has filed an appeal; we are issuing notice on it,” the Court said
During the previous hearing, the SC had strongly criticised Mhatre over the alleged assault on medical professionals inside a hospital. The bench had observed that attacks on doctors “could not be treated lightly” and questioned the decision to grant him bail.
“These kinds of people don’t deserve it (bail). They don’t have respect for the medical fraternity. You go inside a hospital and hit any random person?” the bench had said.
The state, represented by advocate Siddharth Dharmadhikari, had indicated that it would challenge the bail granted to Mhatre. The Indian Medical Association, represented by Advocate-on-Record Prabhas Bajaj, had also intervened in the matter opposing the bail.