GUWAHATI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday, September 17 expressed strong disapproval of a notification by the West Bengal government advising against night shifts for female doctors.
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This directive was issued after the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College in Kolkata.
Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, leading the bench during the hearing of a suo motu case concerning the incident, questioned the state's approach. “How can you say women cannot work at night? Why limit the women doctors? They don’t want concessions."
The CJI also stressed that the government should enhance security rather than restrict women's work hours.
Addressing Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, representing West Bengal, Chandrachud referenced the Supreme Court's Anuj Garg case, which overturned a restriction preventing women from working in liquor shops. He highlighted that using "protection" as a reason to limit women's freedoms is unacceptable.
As for the West Bengla government limiting the duty hours of women doctors to 12 hours, the CJI said that the hours of duty should be reasonable for all doctors and that it would be inappropriate to target women doctors as compared to their male counterparts.
Sibal said the state would modify the August 19 notification with regard to duty hours and night duty.
