UP govt invokes ESMA against striking docs, court gave 10 march date for hearing.

Taking suo motu cognizance of the five-day doctors’ strike which is paralysing the medical facility in the state, the Allahabad High Court Wednesday ordered the UP government to transfer the officials, including 

Kanpur SSP Yashashwi Yadav, involved in the February 28 police action against medicos of GSV Medical College. The UP government, meanwhile, invoked the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) in the state to control the situation.

Appointing senior advocate Jagdish Narain Mathur as the amicus curiae in the case, the court observed that any strike henceforth may amount to contempt of court, punishable under law, thereby bringing the Indian Medical Association’s call for a country-wide boycott of OPD services on Thursday under scanner.
The court also asked for the state-constituted inquiry commission’s probe report on the police action following a clash between undergraduate students of GSVM and Samajwadi Party MLA Irfan Solanki. The court gave Justice Chauhan’s commission three weeks to submit its report.


In directing the state government to transfer the police officials while the model code of conduct has come into place, the court had to overrule the provision which requires the state, under the circumstances, to seek permission from the Election Commission of India. The court was of the view that the gravity of the situation demands that the officials are transferred elsewhere.

It also reminded the doctors of their Hippocratic Oath and “requested” the junior doctors to resume their duty while also permitting their association to intervene in the matter before the court. The court has fixed March 10 as the next hearing date.

Meanwhile, a team of representatives from the IMA and GSVM students met SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. “He has assured us that he will talk to CM Akhilesh Yadav and asked us to take care of the patients.
The strike, though, will continue,” Dr Ravi Mehra, state president of IMA, told The Indian Express.
Confirming the invoking of ESMA in the state, Principal Secretary of Medical Education B S Bhullar said: “We have asked the doctors to join duty with immediate effect.”

Kanpur DM Roshan Jacob said that while the government hospitals remained functional and emergency services were also in place, the strike continued and the 24 medical students against whom FIRs of rioting, loot and other criminal offence have been registered, remained in jail in spite of getting bail. The students, who were sent to judicial custody, were granted bail by the court on Monday but refused to sign the personal bonds required for the bail.

The KGMU Teachers’ Association’s governing body, which met Wednesday, also decided to resign en masse if the matter is not resolved within 48 hours, informed Dr Naim Ahmad, the association’s general secretary. 

UP:senior and junior doctors call off strike for GSVM, KANPUR

Senior doctors in Uttar Pradesh called off their strike early on Thursday after Essential Services Maintenance Act (Esma) was invoked against them on Wednesday. The act includes "essential services" in its charter and prohibits key employees in these services from striking. The four day long strike by the junior doctors was called off on Thursday afternoon after a general body meeting of the junior doctors association, with the King George’s Medical University administration.

The senior doctors of Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Medical College (GSVM) in Kanpur resumed their duties at LLR hospital and six affiliated hospitals after six days of strike, which claimed 27 lives and crippled medical services across the city and state.
The doctors consulted lawyers following the Allahabad high court's directives that they should return to work or their defiance would be treated as contempt.

The Lucknow bench of the high court on Wednesday had taken suo moto cognisance of the ongoing strike of the doctors in the state and ordered a judicial probe into the events at GSVM on February 28.


The state government adhered to the court's order and attached SSP Yashasvi Yadav with the DGP headquarters.
On Thursday, 24 medical students arrested for February 28 violence were released after they signed the bail bonds. They had been granted bail on March 3 but had refused to leave the prison demanding that all the charges against them be dropped unconditionally.


Indian Medical Association (IMA) office bearers received the students at the jail gate and returned to the medical college campus where the junior doctors still haven't rejoined work. They are demanding the arrest of Samajwadi Party MLA Irfan Solanki.

Junior doctors in many parts of the state were observing a strike from March 1 after a scuffle with SP legislator Solanki led to a series of lathi charges, police raids on hostels and mass resignations by doctors across the state.