When criminal cases are lodged against registered medical practitioners, police should inform the Medical Council of India (MCI) and its equivalent body in Maharashtra about the same, the Bombay High Court said on July 4.



The remark was made by Justice Sadhana Jadhav while hearing the bail applications filed by three women doctors, arrested for allegedly abetting the suicide of a junior colleague at a civic body-run hospital in Mumbai. The three doctors -- Hema Ahuja, Ankita Khandelwal and Bhakti Meher -- moved the high court last week against a special court order rejecting their bail pleas on June 24.

The three doctors are in jail since May 29. Payal Tadvi (26), a second-year post-graduate medical student attached to the B Y L Nair Hospital, had committed suicide in her hostel room on May 22. Tadvi's family had accused Ahuja, Meher and Khandelwal of ragging and hurling casteist abuses at her.

The three doctors have denied the allegation. The suicide of Tadvi, who hailed from a Scheduled Tribe (ST) community, had caused a public outrage and led to protests by various organisations. Justice Jadhav asked special public prosecutor Raja Thakare whether the police had informed the MCI and the Medical Council of Maharashtra (MCM) about the case lodged against the three medical practitioners.

When Thakare replied in the negative, the court said it should have been done. The MCI and the MCM are medical education regulating bodies, which deal with various aspects of the profession. Thakare informed the court that the investigation in the case should be completed within two weeks. The court issued notice to the complainant (Tadvi's mother) in the case and posted the bail pleas for further hearing on July 16.

While refusing to grant bail to the doctors, the special court had said there was a likelihood of the trio trying to abscond or tamper with the evidence. In their pleas to the high court, the doctors have claimed that they have been falsely implicated in the case and that they had only pulled up Tadvi, an "adivasi", for failing to do her job properly at the hospital. They have been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Maharashtra Prohibition of Ragging Act and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.