Srinagar: The Government of India (GoI) has informed the J&K High Court that a separate legislation for safety of healthcare workers cannot be enacted as similar demands from other professionals would arise.
Assistant Solicitor General of India (ASGI) Vishal Sharma filed in the High Court a communication dated May 12, 2020, received by him from Ashok Kumar Pal, Under Secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs. The communication stated that while examining the draft legislation received through Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, titled “Health Service Personnel and Clinical Establishments (Prohibition of violence and damage to property) Act, 2019” to address the issue of assault on health care service personnel and clinical establishments, the Ministry of Home Affairs did not support the bill due to many reasons.
One of the reasons, the communication mentioned, was that enacting a separate legislation for prohibiting violence against doctors and other health care professional would give rise to similar demands from other categories of professionals, such as media persons, advocates, bankers, charted accountants, etc.
The communication said that the State is duty bound to protect life and property of all its citizens, including doctors.
The court of Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Rajnesh Oswal after going through the contents of the said communication remarked that it would be useful to have a report from the Government of India regarding receipt of complaints from professionals other than healthcare professionals, including media persons, bankers, advocates, chartered accountants, etc, making a grievance that they were suffering violence and seeking enactment of legislation on the same.
The court directed that a report in this regard should be filed by June 3.
Earlier, the court had expressed concern over violence against healthcare professionals and had sought a separate legislation in this regard.
The Doctors Association of Kashmir (DAK) through its president Dr Nisar-ul-Hassan has stated in their response before court that they do not want any separate law as it will strain the doctor-patient relationship.

NUSRAT SIDIQ