Gurugram: Calling disciplinary action “highly disturbing” and “manifestly arbitrary”, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday pulled up the Haryana government for punishing a doctor who did not rise from his chair when an MLA entered the emergency ward of a hospital during the Covid-19 pandemic.
A division bench of justices Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Rohit Kapoor ordered the state health department to issue a no-objection certificate (NOC) to Dr Manoj, who needed it to pursue a post-graduate medical course.
The HC also imposed costs of Rs 50,000 on the state, observing that expecting a doctor to stand when an MLA enters the emergency ward—and proposing disciplinary action if he doesn’t—was “insensitive” and “wholly unjust”.
Dr Manoj, a casualty medical officer with the Haryana health department, had cleared the entrance examination for a postgraduate course but needed NOC from his employer to apply under the in-service quota. The department refused, citing a pending show-cause notice issued over the 2021 incident related to the MLA.
The court’s order said that the legislator was annoyed because the doctor, who did not stand up when he entered the ward. A show-cause notice was subsequently issued, proposing punishment under Rule 8 of the Haryana Civil Services (Punishment and Appeal) Rules, 2016. The provision provides for penalties ranging from a warning and censure to withholding of promotion for a year or recovery of pecuniary loss from salary.
In his reply submitted to the government in June 2024, Dr Manoj explained that he simply did not recognise the MLA and had no intention of showing “discourtesy”, the order read. Nearly one-and-a-half years later, the state is yet to pass a final order on the show-cause notice and the department refused to issue the NOC, citing this pending inquiry.
“We are anguished and amazed at the action of the state in issuing the show-cause notice to a government doctor who was on emergency duty during the Covid-19 period only because he did not rise when the MLA arrived,” the bench remarked while allowing the writ petition filed through advocate Ankit Chahal.
The judges noted frequent media reports about medical professionals being ill-treated by relatives of patients or public representatives without valid cause. “Time has come when such undesirable incidents are checked and due recognition is extended to sincere medical professionals,” they observed.
The court directed that the NOC be issued “forthwith”, so the doctor can pursue higher studies. The Rs 50,000 costs have been ordered to be deposited with the Poor Patient Welfare Fund at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh.
(Edited by Prerna Madan)
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