All the junior doctors at government medical colleges across Bengal ceasing work to protest the rape and murder of a second-year postgraduate trainee at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, must resume their hospital duties by 5 pm on Tuesday, September 10, the Supreme Court ordered today morning.

A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra is hearing the case, which it took cognisance of suo motu. Today’s hearing involved the status report from the CBI on its investigation.

“We have given [the junior doctors] two days. The young doctors must now return and resume work,” CJI Chandrachud said in an oral order.

He, though, was fully empathetic of the doctors’ stance and demands, as he went on to say, “We know what is happening on the ground … First, return to work. … the district collectors and the superintendents of police will ensure safety.”

But he did not forget to add, “You have to now return to work and if you do not come to work, do not hold anyone responsible for disciplinary action against you. You cannot say that seniors are working, so we will not.”

The order comes with a month’s time having completed since the protest by junior doctors started at RG Kar Medical College (on August 9, the day after the incident, which took place late on August 10) and gradually spread to all government medical college hospitals in Bengal. The protest, now involving all sections of society, has spread across the country and even internationally.

The Supreme Court’s order comes after several cases of patients, mostly poor, and therefore not in a position to afford costly private care, dying due to not receiving proper care at government hospitals.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who is representing Bengal, informed the court during the hearing today that 23 people have died as a result of the doctors’ strike.

Besides these, many people could not get admitted after senior doctors told them about staff shortages, and for many, crucial diagnostic tests have had to be postponed or done at private laboratories.

According to Health Department sources, more than 5,000 scheduled surgeries had to be cancelled across the state’s 26 government medical college hospitals because of the agitation.