NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Tuesday said West Bengal govt 's ' Rattirer Sathi ' scheme for recruitment of 1,514 privately recruited persons to provide security in government hospitals may fall short of instilling a sense of safety among doctors as a similarly recruited civic volunteer allegedly committed the Aug 9 rape and murder at the R G Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata.
Though senior advocate Kapil Sibal and advocate Astha Sharma, for the state, said the 'Rattirer Sathi' personnel would be in addition to the regular police force providing security at the hospitals, a bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra expressed little confidence in the scheme. Sibal said it is only a temporary measure for a year and eventually the 'Rattirer Sathi' personnel will be replaced completely by regular police to provide round-the-clock security to doctors and healthcare professionals in govt hospitals.
The CJI said, "What really happened was that the accused was drawn from the civic volunteer force. If you are replacing civic volunteers with another contractual force who would be trained for seven days and then they would be walking around all over the places in the hospital, it would give little sense of security to the young doctors, particularly women doctors."
"These contractual staff will walk around the hospital at night. The govt resolution says these personnel will be recruited from outside agencies. They will be trained for a week by the police. Would anyone carry out verification of these personnel?" the bench asked. Sibal said a thorough verification would be done with the help of the health department and they would be recruited through agencies.
CJI said, "The women doctors have a feeling of insecurity. They do not know who these personnel are." Sibal said the CISF is there to oversee their activities. But the bench said the CISF is there for a short period. The bench said, "The whole problem arises when you entrust security to contractual staff, particularly in hospitals where people are on duty for 36 hours and stay there. No protection for women otherwise."
Sibal said there is a police outpost outside every hospital. To that, the bench said notwithstanding the police outpost at R G Kar, the crime was registered after a long delay. Sibal said, "We will disband it if the court does not want it." The bench said, "It is not a question of the court wanting it. We are not in charge of governance in the state. There are genuine reservations - who are these privately recruited personnel?"
Though senior advocate Kapil Sibal and advocate Astha Sharma, for the state, said the 'Rattirer Sathi' personnel would be in addition to the regular police force providing security at the hospitals, a bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra expressed little confidence in the scheme. Sibal said it is only a temporary measure for a year and eventually the 'Rattirer Sathi' personnel will be replaced completely by regular police to provide round-the-clock security to doctors and healthcare professionals in govt hospitals.
The CJI said, "What really happened was that the accused was drawn from the civic volunteer force. If you are replacing civic volunteers with another contractual force who would be trained for seven days and then they would be walking around all over the places in the hospital, it would give little sense of security to the young doctors, particularly women doctors."
"These contractual staff will walk around the hospital at night. The govt resolution says these personnel will be recruited from outside agencies. They will be trained for a week by the police. Would anyone carry out verification of these personnel?" the bench asked. Sibal said a thorough verification would be done with the help of the health department and they would be recruited through agencies.
CJI said, "The women doctors have a feeling of insecurity. They do not know who these personnel are." Sibal said the CISF is there to oversee their activities. But the bench said the CISF is there for a short period. The bench said, "The whole problem arises when you entrust security to contractual staff, particularly in hospitals where people are on duty for 36 hours and stay there. No protection for women otherwise."
Sibal said there is a police outpost outside every hospital. To that, the bench said notwithstanding the police outpost at R G Kar, the crime was registered after a long delay. Sibal said, "We will disband it if the court does not want it." The bench said, "It is not a question of the court wanting it. We are not in charge of governance in the state. There are genuine reservations - who are these privately recruited personnel?"
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