The Supreme Court on Tuesday (August 5, 2025) directed the National Work Force (NTF) constituted to protect the medical professionals to file his reply on the report given by states and other stakeholders to prevent sexual violence and develop security protocols in hospitals.
Taking automatic cognizance on August 20 last year, the Supreme Court had formed the National Work Force (NTF) to prepare a protocol on the protection of medical professionals in view of the incident of rape and murder of a woman doctor in RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata.
A bench of Justice MM Sundresh and Justice N. Kotishwar Singh gave NTF eight weeks to file their reply during the hearing on Tuesday (August 5, 2025). The Supreme Court had earlier directed all hospitals including the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) of New Delhi to regularize the unauthorized absence of doctors who were protesting against the RG tax medical college rape and murder case of Kolkata.
The court then noticed the arguments of an organization of doctors, stating that some hospitals have regularized the absence of doctors after the order of August 22, 2024, while some other hospitals including AIIMS Delhi have decided to consider this period as absence holiday.
On August 22 last year, the bench had made an emotional appeal to the doctors performing across the country and asked them to return to work. The Supreme Court had said that justice and medicine could not be stopped and the court directed that no punitive action would be taken against the doctors after returning to work.
There was resentment across the country over the RG tax incident and there were long protests in West Bengal. A lower court in Kolkata on January 20 sentenced Sanjay Roy, convicted of the case, to life imprisonment till death. On August 9 last year, the body of a trainee doctor was found in the hospital seminar hall, after which the Kolkata police arrested Sanjay Roy the next day in connection with the crime.