Don't engage PG Medical, CRRI students beyond 8 hours, says Madras HC
Madras High Court has directed the concerned authorities to not engage Post-Graduate (PG) medical students and the students undergoing CRRI in medical colleges beyond eight hours of duty.
On Friday, the Madras High Court directed the concerned authorities to not engage post-graduate medical students and the students undergoing the compulsory rotatory residential internship (CRRI) in medical colleges beyond eight hours of duty.
The court has disposed off a public interest writ petition from G R Ravindranath, general secretary of the Doctors Association for social equality. The petitioner sought the strict implementation of the Directorate of Medical Education's July 2015 notification which states to provide eight hours of duty per day on a shift basis to PG medical students and under-graduate CRRI candidates at the state-run medical colleges and hospitals.
The state government informed the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P D Audikesdavalu that this is true that the PG medical students and those students undergoing CRRI were engaged beyond eight hours during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the practice is not prevalent since February 2021 and hence there has been no violation. The committees have been established to check that there is no violation of this and any individual can use these committees if they are asked for more than eight hours of work.
The bench said the provisions might have breached during the emergency situation of the pandemic, especially during the first and second waves, however, now the officials are saying that from February 2021 nothing of that sort happened and also to look in such matters committees are there which students can use if they face any such issues.
The court has said that the situation should be regularly monitored and the post-graduate medical students or undergraduate interns should not be engaged beyond the recommended hours, their working hours cannot be increased only because the medical colleges and government hospitals are not properly staffed. As per the court, the petition appears to have filled its purpose.
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