The court said if work was not resumed on Saturday, government and hospital management would be free to take disciplinary action against the doctors.
"Are your demands more important than people's life?" the Bombay High Court asked on Friday, while accepting the assurance given by Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD), for the last time, in which they said that it would request/urge all individual striking doctors to resume work in hospitals across Maharashtra by 8 am on Saturday.
The Indian Medical Association, which was supporting the Maharashtra resident doctors, has also called off the stir.
While giving the striking doctors a last chance, a division bench of Justice Manjulla Chellur and Justice GS Kulkarni said, "If not by Saturday, then the government and hospital management will be free to take disciplinary action against the erring doctors." On Thursday, the court had restrained the government from taking any punitive action against the doctors if they resume duty.
However, on Friday, after going through statistics provided by the state government and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) about the number of persons dead in hospitals in Mumbai and outside, the court said, "We will not be able to address to your griveances until you resume work."
As per the statistic, over 150 patients died in Mumbai hospitals during the four days of the strike. However, appearing for MARD, Advocate Rahul Totala disputed the claim that the deaths were not because of unavailability of medical aid.
Appearing for the petitioner Afaq Mandaviya, Advocate Datta Mane mentioned the matter before the court, after the strike which was to end on Thursday evening, continued on Friday.
While hearing the petition on Thursday, it MARD had assured the court that it would request all striking doctors to resume work. The government had also assured it would provide adequate security for upto 1100 personnel by April 5. The bench had asked the doctors to resume work and assured that their problems would be amicably settled and it would take up the hearing of the matter highlighting the problems faced every fortnight. However, until late evening on Thursday, the doctors did not budge from their protest and even claimed that only after going through the High Court order personally would they withdraw the strike.
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